LONDON – The fight for Champions League qualification from the English Premier League intensified Sunday, with Arsenal dismantling Aston Villa in its biggest win of the season and Southampton surrendering third place after a surprise home loss to Swansea.
Mesut Ozil and Theo Walcott – starting their first league games after long injury lay-offs – were among Arsenal’s scorers in a 5-0 win at Emirates Stadium, continuing the free-scoring form of Arsene Wenger’s team and leaving relegation-threatened Villa with an unwanted record.
Oliver Giroud slotted a low finish into the corner, Santi Cazorla converted a penalty and right back Hector Bellerin completed the rout in injury time.
For the first time in their 141-year history, Villa have gone six league games without a goal.
Arsenal stayed fifth but are now level on points with Southampton, which failed to translate their dominance into goals before being caught out by Jonjo Shelvey’s 83rd-minute shot in a 1-0 defeat.
A frustrating afternoon was complete for Southampton when left back Ryan Bertrand was sent off in the 89th for a dangerous tackle.
Only five points separate third-place Manchester United and seventh-place Liverpool with 15 games remaining, in what is shaping up to be a scramble for the final two Champions League spots behind the top two of Chelsea and Manchester City.
On current form, Arsenal are looking good to return to Europe’s top competition for an 18th straight season.
Arsenal are 11 points behind league leader Chelsea.
Team Pts P W D L GS GA +/-
1 Chelsea 53 23 16 5 2 52 20 +32
2 Manchester City 48 23 14 6 3 46 23 +23
3 Manchester United 43 23 12 7 4 39 22 +17
4 Southampton 42 23 13 3 7 37 17 +20
5 Arsenal 42 23 12 6 5 44 25 +19
6 Tottenham Hotspur 40 23 12 4 7 35 30 +5
7 Liverpool 38 23 11 5 7 33 27 +6
8 West Ham United 36 23 10 6 7 35 27 +8
9 Swansea City 33 23 9 6 8 27 30 -3
10 Stoke City 32 23 9 5 9 26 28 -2
11 Newcastle United 30 23 8 6 9 29 35 -6
12 Everton 26 23 6 8 9 31 34 -3
13 Crystal Palace 23 23 5 8 10 25 34 -9
14 Sunderland 23 23 4 11 8 21 33 -12
15 West Bromwich Albion 22 23 5 7 11 20 32 -12
16 Aston Villa 22 23 5 7 11 11 30 -19
17 Burnley 20 23 4 8 11 21 38 -17
18 Hull City 19 23 4 7 12 20 33 -13
19 Queens Park Rangers 19 23 5 4 14 24 42 -18
20 Leicester City 17 23 4 5 14 21 37 -16
