Arsenal vs Aston Villa

4 trophies? More like 4th place.

Thomas Vermaelen finally recovered from an injury to make his first start since September. Unfortunately this is about as good as the news gets for the Arsenal faithful. A host of injuries saw Squillaci in the starting eleven, on the bench were youngsters Miquel and Henderson.

The Gunners were slow to start and after 11 minutes they were punished. Arsenal were pushing up after a corner but Darren Bent, who was on the shoulder of Squillaci, controlled brilliantly then put Villa 1-0 up.

4 minutes later, the same player doubled the away sides lead in similar fashion. It was Sagna this time trying to play offside but Bent was there again to slot it underneath Szczesny. This was Aston Villas second shot, both resulting in goals.

On the half-hour mark, Arsenal had a definite penalty turned down. Wilshere with a superb ball to Ramsey who went to pull the trigger, only for Dunne to stop him making contact with the ball. The defender didn't make any contact with the ball yet Michael Oliver gave a goal kick. Had it been given Dunne would have seen red and you'd count on Van Persie to score for 12 yards out. This sparked a come back for Arsenal who were having all the attempts. The post kept it 2-0, Van Persie denied what would've been a fantastic goal.

Referee howler number two came on the stroke of half-time. Van Persie turned Dunne who had tried to get to the ball before him. The Dutchman then passed to Ramsey who was halted by the whistle as Oliver felt Van Persie had fouled Dunne. Shock for everyone with this decision as the Villa centre half ran into Van Persie.

Haft-time and the boos began from frustrated fans. Arsene Wenger's side should have had at least a goal but their poor start and terrible refereeing meant they went into the break trailing by 2 goals to nil.

Arsene's answer to this was Chamakh on for Squillaci. 4-4-2 was adopted and Song dropped into defence.

The second half was all the Gunners however they failed to really test Friedel so on came Bendtner for the once again disappointing Arshavin.

Arsenal continued to dominate the possession but made little with it.  A rare attack from Villa needed two saves from Szczesny and two minutes later, the ball was in the net. Chamakh had scored his first goal since March only for mistake number three by the official who claimed the Moroccan pushed the defender to reach the ball.

Shot after shot after shot, none managed to cross the line until the 89th minute when Van Persie scored his 21st goal of a season limited by injury. What a player he is but his goal was a mere consolation as it finished 2-1 to Aston Villa. Arsenal's third defeat in four games.

Part of the blame has to be on Wenger who has stuck to 4-5-1/4-3-3 all season, only to change to a more attacking formation later on in games. Even when we tried to get a goal back, he brought Bendtner on as a left winger. I'm sure, like me the majority of fans are frustrated with Bendtner but wrongly so. His goal record is impressive considering his abuse and if he was deployed as a target man, he'd definitely score more goals this term. Secondly, he tried to play offside to a team with Darren Bent in it. By the way can I add, I'd love to see the English striker at Arsenal. Anyway Bent is one who plays on the shoulder so fail to catch him offside leaves him one on one with the keeper which ultimatley happened twice in the game and we lost because of it.

The final home game of the campaign is usually a day of celebration. Not this year. All players did a lap of the pitch for those supporters that remained after the game. All fans know that should Man City win on Tuesday, they will go above us with one game left. 4th obviously isn't a disaster, it just means two extra games in August to qualify for the Champions League. Yes, it would be an inconvenience to qualify for the Champions League but you'd expect them to win without too much trouble against a Benfica side or Rubin Kazan which could await us. Still, we can always hope that Man City lose 1 of their final games so we go straight into the group stage. Yet I cannot see this. 

We can finish this season with a maximum of 70 points which will be our lowest total in since 2007. We are currently 10 behind Man United and went out of the Champions League in the first knock-out round. I think this maybe enough evidence to suggest the team needs improving and by improving I mean players of the same quality as Nasri and Vermaelen not Denilson and Squillaci. Having said that it i'd be slightly surprised if Wenger went for £20 million signings. Still we hope which seems to be the only word Arsenal fans can use when descibing our beloved team.

Pictures courtesy of skysports.com