Online Assistant

Ramsey was again one of the positives during the Emirates Cup over the weekend, and whilst the results didn't go the way of Wenger's side against either Boca Juniors or New York Red Bulls, the 20-year-old showed once again that he could be a key part of Arsenal's plans this term.

Arsenal had to ride out a spirited second-half performance from Aston Villa before claiming a 4-2 win at Villa Park in the Premier League.

After enduring a week to forget with a derby defeat followed by a loss in Europe, Andrei Arshavin and Samir Nasri scored at the end of a first half they dominated, despite the absence of talismanic captain Cesc Fabregas.

Youngster Ciaran Clark scored a stunning goal - his first for the club - soon after the restart to pull a resurgent Villa back into the match, only for Marouane Chamakh to restore Arsenal's two-goal lead soon afterwards.

Clark then bagged another with 20 minutes remaining, but Jack Wilshere scored his first league goal for the Gunners in injury time to help Arsenal move top of the table for a few hours at least.

Ex-Arsenal winger Robert Pires made his full debut for Villa against his former club, but the 37-year-old's advancing years showed. The Frenchman made nigh on 300 appearances for the Gunners during the most glorious period of their history, and had trained with his old club before joining Villa on a short-term deal, but he could not exert the influence of old that helped the Londoners to the double and their unbeaten title-winning campaign of 2003-04.

Chamakh, one of seven changes to the Arsenal side following Wednesday's 2-0 defeat at Braga, almost opened the scoring in the first minute when he dinked Arshavin's pass over Brad Friedel, but defender James Collins was on the line to clear the ball.

Not long afterwards Tomas Rosicky flashed an effort across the face of goal, and the tone was set for a half of Arsenal dominance.

However, after that early flourish, the Gunners struggled to turn that hogging of the ball into many more clear chances.

Villa were reduced to going at the visitors on the counter-attack, but for the most part Pires provided an outlet bereft of pace.

Their first opportunity came midway through the first half, when Stewart Downing's cross from deep was flicked on by Clark to Ashley Young at the far post, but the England winger was beaten by the bounce and could only steer the ball over the bar.

Arshavin ended his 11-match run without a goal on 39 minutes. Collins and Luke Young got in each others' way as they both went for Lukasz Fabianski's long ball upfield, and the Russian had plenty of space to eat up before cutting inside and firing a strike that Friedel could only tip on to the far post and into the net.

Nasri fired into the side netting almost immediately from the restart, before Friedel made a good reaction save from Chamakh's header.

However, Nasri was not to be denied, and his volley from a corner took enough of a deflection off Luke Young to deceive Friedel and go into the bottom corner.

Pires was withdrawn for Nathan Delfouneso at half-time, and Villa emerged with renewed vigour. Clark gave the home side hope when Barry Bannan's cross was headed away by Sebastien Squillaci, but only as far as the 21-year-old, who was given enough space on the edge of the box to control with his chest and lash a stunning finish into the top corner.

Chamakh put Arsenal clear again soon afterwards when he beat Friedel to Rosicky's through ball and prodded it into the empty net for his 11th goal of the season.

However, Arsenal were far from home and dry, and Clark got his and Villa's second when he flicked Richard Dunne's header from a corner in off the underside of the bar.

The final 20 minutes promised much for the vociferous Holte End support, but in the end Arsenal's class shone through, and Wilshere sealed the result in the 93rd minute when he met Chamakh's chipped cross with a close-range diving header.

The spirit shown by Gerard Houllier's young side will encourage the French manager, but ultimately the result means Villa remain in the bottom half of the table.

The most important qualities we showed at Everton were discipline, commitment, togetherness, desire and a 100 per cent focus for 90 minutes. That is what got us the points.

When you go to Goodison Park without those qualities you don't get the points. We have had two very difficult away games with Wolves and Everton and we have got six points that have put us in a good situation. We were a bit disappointed after last Sunday's defeat to Newcastle but I feel that was under special circumstances. Overall the team has shown great spirit.

The performance at Everton showed we have quality and fighting spirit. That is an ingredient you will need if you want to fight for the championship like we want to do. I have said for a long time that we are equipped to challenge for the title and the players get a lot of encouragement from the way they are playing at the moment, from our discipline and our focus. Now let's get more points into our account and see where we stand in the end.

Once again Lukasz Fabianski made some important saves late in the game. He was important for us because when we were 2-0 up I felt we tried too much to keep that scoreline and kept the ball in a negative way instead of wanting to go forward. We were nearly punished because we became a bit too conservative.

I took Jack Wilshere off at half time but he is not injured. I wanted a second holding player to win the second balls from headers and I felt Jack looked a bit tired because he has played many games. I wanted to take him off because of that but he will be alright to join up with the England squad.

Nicklas Bendtner was not in the squad on Sunday because he had a little groin problem so I left him at home. The Danish national squad can call him up and check his condition but I would prefer him not to go. He would prefer to stay as well.

There has been speculation about Nicklas but I want him to stay. I have known him since he was 16 years old and I have a good rapport with him. I like him as a player and as a person. I want him to stay and be part of the group.

When you win with two minutes to go it is always a relief.

We needed to be patient, intelligent and not make a mistake at the back on Saturday against a West Ham team that had a strong spirit and were well-organised.

We showed patience because in the first half it was difficult to get into the flow of our passing so we had to wait until they got a bit fatigued. West Ham kept going and we did as well. We kept the structure of our game right, we didn't do anything stupid, we kept trying to be intelligent and that in the end got us the goal with two minutes to go.

I thought we might drop points when Theo Walcott's shot hit the post and then bounced back into the goalkeeper's hands. That is usually not a good sign But we kept going and out of this game we can say we have once again shown a great attitude and we have matured. You can see that when it doesn't work for us the players remain calmer than before.

Alex Song scored and he is adding that to his game because he had three good chances on Saturday. He has got the taste to go forward, even if I think a little too much sometimes for a holding midfielder!

Denilson has had three good games in a week - he played the whole 90 minutes at Manchester City, the whole 90 minutes at Newcastle and he did quite well on Saturday because he defended very well at the moment everybody went forward. Jack Wilshere is coming back and can play with Denilson and Song. I have potential to rotate the team because we have Diaby and Ramsey to come back as well.

I am asked about the title and I believe we have a good chance but we want to show consistency first. We go step by step. I believe we still need to step up a gear to completely achieve that. But on the other hand you feel as well that there is more to come out from this team because we had strength on the bench on Saturday and we still have some players to come back.

If we can keep a good injury record then we have a chance. It's too early in the season to be sure but I have belief. We have to show we can handle every single game with the different challenges that the Premier League has. You saw on Saturday that we played against the bottom team in the Premier League and it was a real battle. We have to show we can compete like that in every game.

Of course we have now kept three clean sheets in a row. That's new for me! A day where I don't have to look on the television slow motion to see why we conceded a goal does not happen often so I am very happy with that.

The big talking point from Saturday was Jack Wilshere's red card.

He mistimed his tackle and he got what he deserved. But it was his first tackle in the game and you have to acknowledge that he didn't spend the whole game kicking people. He played football and was one of the best players on the football pitch.

Unfortunately he committed a bad challenge but I think it was borne of frustration, he mistimed his tackle. We do not complain about his red card but you cannot say he had a dirty game.

Aside from the sending off Jack showed that he is a complete player. He played defensively well, offensively well, and I believe that overall he had a very good game, a very influential game. He was very reliable defensively and very creative going forward.

Overall it was imperative to get the three points against Birmingham. I believe we played quite nervously - you could see our fluency was affected by the fact that we had not won for two games. We played a little bit with the handbrake in the final third, especially when we were 2-1 up, and it was never comfortable.

When we went 1-0 down it was backs to the wall considering the state of the Premier League table. We had absolutely to win so it was even more difficult to concede first, but I cannot fault anybody too much on the goal we conceded because it was a wonderful header like we used to see in England 30 or 40 years ago. There's not a lot you can do about that.

Marouane Chamakh scored the winner and since the beginning of the season, if you look at how many times he has been decisive at 0-0 or 1-1, you will be surprised. He is very influential in the team.

It was good to have Nicklas Bendtner back from injury but he doesn't look completely ready yet. He needs a few more weeks. He has not played regular football for a long time and you do not come back straight away like that into top-level competition.

I think we demonstrated on Saturday that you can play well and lose the match.

The Chelsea game should have been over within a minute - we had the first two chances and we missed that header from six yards. I think Koscielny was too much turned towards the corner instead of turning his body and facing the goal. He did not adjust to the ball.

I think we were a bit unfortunate as well because there was a foul on Song from Ramieres in the build-up to Chelsea's first goal. After that we made a mistake that should not happen at the near post and Drogba took advantage of it.

For much of the second half it was one-way traffic and in the last 10 to 15 minutes Chelsea were counter-attacking. But we missed too many chances at that level and in the final third you need to be more clinical offensively and defensively.

We had a great team performance and great energy. But we have to be more clinical to win titles - we can't lose a game like that.

We are a team that wants to have the ball and doesn't hide away from home. Any side who goes to Stamford Bridge and sits back gets punished. If you allow them to play in your half they have the quality with their strikers and take advantage of mistakes.

So I decided to play in their half and overall I think we did it very well. You want to be rewarded when you produce a game of that quality and when you go home with no points we have to analyse why and be more clinical. The basis is there, the collective team quality is there but we have to transform that into points.

I wasn't angry with my team. I felt sorry for them because they had an outstanding attitude and an outstanding display. You can only congratulate them for that attitude. I feel sorry for the fact that they have not been rewarded but we live in a realistic world and when you don't score and don't take your chances then you don't win big games.

Jack Wilshere showed once again that he is a big-game player. He finished a bit tired because he gave everything but he's 18 years of age. You can only say 'Congratulations Jack' and keep going.

Abou Diaby also played well in midfield but he has a bad ankle and looks to be a doubt for the French national team.

Overall it was a competitive game against Bolton on Saturday where we dominated and created many chances.

Mind you it was also the kind of game that you can drop points in if you don't kill the game off.

You can dominate 80 per cent of the time and still lose against Bolton because one or two balls, throw-ins or set pieces, can be dangerous and they are a good side in midfield as well.

They marked us very tightly and I think that led to a very physical game but they played well too. Owen Coyle uses the strong points of his team and I believe they have a good mixture between playing on the ground and being more direct.

It was a good test for our centre backs on Saturday and they did very well with Squillaci making his debut. But overall I am pleased with the performance of the whole team.

Bolton had full commitment but we needed to be patient, get our technique and passing to prevail and I was confident that it would. It was important not to make a second mistake after we conceded the equaliser.

I don't think Koscielny and Squillaci will have 18 or 19 home games like that! It was a good test for them and what I like is, for example, when Koscielny was knocked down he came back and still won every header after that. For somebody coming from the French league that is a good sign.

Cesc Fabregas was impressive. I have seen quite a few good performances from him and it is difficult to compare them. We play the game he loves to play and the game turns around him. He grew up in this team and to make this team win will be a bigger achievement than anything else.

Jack Wilshere started as well and he has every chance of playing a number of games this season. He is 18 years old but I consider him a player of the first-team squad. When he is on the pitch he is completely in the game.