Arsenal 4-0 Aston Villa

Aston Villa suffered a 4-0 defeat at the hands of Arsenal at the Emirates this afternoon.

Goals from Beth Mead, Stina Blackstenius and a brace from Alessia Russo punished Villa for a lacklustre performance.

Arsenal started the game quick out of the traps as they piled on some early pressure, but the offside flag helped keep the sting off their attacks as they were caught offside twice inside the opening 10 minutes.

Katie McCabe called Sabrina D’Angelo into action on the 16^th minute as she blasted a low free kick from distance straight at the keeper.

The home side’s early dominance paid off as Russo put the side a goal ahead on the 18^th minute as she flicked on a long free kick from Kyra Cooney-Cross into the far corner.

D’Angelo ensured that Arsenal didn’t make it two in quick succession as she pulled off a terrific double save deep inside her box only two minutes later.

Cooney-Cross tried her luck from the edge of the area on the 36^th minute as she drilled a low shot through the box but D’Angelo got down to smother the effort.

Mead made it 2-0 to the hosts six minutes before the break as she tapped home the ball from only three years out after Frida Maanum’s strike bounced back off the post and into her path.

Villa knew they had to come out a much-improved side after the break if they wanted to earn something from the contest and Chasity Grant was presented with a chance to half the deficit on the 57^th minute.

A well-weighted through ball was played over the Arsenal defence and into Grant’s path, who took a touch inside the box before rifling a low shot, but Mariona Caldentey did well to recover and put in a last-ditch block.

Paula Tomàs met a cross inside the six-yard box on the 65^th minute but she was unable to keep her header down and on target.

Blackstenius came off the bench and made an instant impact as she added the North London’s side third of the game 20 minutes from time.

Katie McCabe whipped a great cross from out wide into the area where Blackstenius broke free past her marker and was able to flick a first-time shot past D’Angelo.

Russo wrapped up the scoring deep into stoppage time as she found some space inside the box before rifling a shot into the far top left-hand corner of goal.