Santi Cazorla scored a hat-trick to lift Arsenal’s spirits as the Gunners bounced back from their League Cup humiliation with an emphatic 5-2 victory at Reading on Monday.
The Spanish midfielder struck twice in the first half after Lukas Podolski’s opener and completed his treble after the break to shatter Reading’s hopes of inflicting more misery on Arsene Wenger’s spluttering side.
Adam le Fondre and Jimmy Kebe reduced the deficit for Reading, but Theo Walcott’s late strike confirmed Arsenal’s rise to fifth place, two points behind Chelsea and Tottenham, and left the hosts bottom of the table and six points adrift of safety.
Photo: AFP
It also gave Wenger and his players some much needed breathing space after heavy criticism following last week’s shock League Cup quarter-final defeat at League Two minnows Bradford.
“It was important to stay strong and play football,” Wenger said. “Success comes with playing [good] football. And it was a very convincing win tonight.”
Gunners midfielder Jack Wilshere hailed Cazorla’s contribution, saying: “His all-round play is great. It’s tough for anyone to come from Spain into the Premier League, but he makes it look so easy.”
Photo: Reuters
Inevitably, Wenger made changes from the side that had flopped so badly against Bradford.
Ivory Coast forward Gervinho was dropped to the bench as Wenger opted for an attacking formation featuring Walcott, Alex Oxlade-Chamberlain and Podolski.
Walcott’s return to fitness following a calf injury was particularly well-timed because the England international had scored a hat-trick at Reading in October in the League Cup when the Gunners recovered from being 4-0 down to win 7-5 in extra time.
Walcott began as the central attacker, the position he says he prefers, with Oxlade-Chamberlain on the right and Podolski on the left.
Oxlade-Chamberlain was quickly into the action, exchanging passes with Cazorla, before forcing Reading goalkeeper Adam Federici into a diving parry.
Reading’s Noel Hunt headed over from a corner, but Arsenal’s reply was a 14th-minute opener from Podolski, who took Kieran Gibbs’ cross from the left down with one touch and rammed the ball past Federici with his next.
Reading were rocking and Podolski created the next Arsenal chance with a cut back from the left and although Gibbs’ initial effort was blocked, Wilshere’s follow-up forced Federici into another save.
Arsenal doubled their lead when Podolski’s cross from the left was nodded in by the smallest man on the pitch, Cazorla, in the 32nd minute.
And the Gunners needed only 2 minutes, 41 seconds to extend their lead, with Cazorla again the man on target.
Gibbs headed down Walcott’s cross from the right and the Spaniard swiveled to beat Federici.
Walcott fired wide from outside the box early in the second-half as the away fans chanted “Wenger, sign him up” — a reference to the fact his contract is due to expire in the summer.
However, Cazorla completed his hat-trick on the hour mark with a tap-in after Oxlade-Chamberlain, Wilshere and Podolski exchanged passes to leave Reading’s defenders chasing shadows.
Le Fondre pulled one back for Reading after Wilshere stumbled as Gibbs passed to him, allowing Jay Tabb to intercept and send the substitute away to round Wojciech Szczesny and find the net.
Reading scored again five minutes later through Kebe after another substitute, Hal Robson-Kanu, had put him through.
However, Walcott made sure of an Arsenal victory in the 80th minute when he accepted a pass from Cazorla, skipped past Kaspars Gorkss and slotted calmly past Federici.
Revelations of positive doping tests for nearly two dozen Chinese swimmers that went unpunished sparked an intense flurry of accusations and legal threats between the World Anti-Doping Agency (WADA) and the head of the US drug-fighting organization, who has long been one of WADA’s fiercest critics. WADA on Saturday said it was turning to legal counsel to address a statement released by US Anti-Doping Agency (USADA) CEO Travis Tygart, who said WADA and anti-doping authorities in China swept positive tests “under the carpet by failing to fairly and evenly follow the global rules that apply to everyone else in the world.” The
Taiwanese judoka Yang Yung-wei on Saturday won silver in the men’s under-60kg category at the Asian Judo Championships in Hong Kong. Nicknamed the “judo heartthrob” in Taiwan, the Olympic silver-medalist missed out on his first Asian Championships gold when he lost to Japanese judoka Taiki Nakamura in the finals. Yang defeated three opponents on Saturday to reach the final after receiving a bye through the round of 32. He first topped Laotian Soukphaxay Sithisane in the round of 16 with two seoi nage (over-the-shoulder throws), then ousted Indian Vijay Kumar Yadav in the quarter-finals with his signature ude hishigi sankaku gatame (triangular armlock). He
Rafael Nadal on Wednesday said the upcoming French Open would be the moment to “give everything and die” on the court after his comeback from injury in Barcelona was curtailed by Alex de Minaur. The 22-time Grand Slam title winner, back playing this week after three months on the sidelines, battled well, but eventually crumbled 7-5, 6-1 against the world No. 11 from Australia in the second round. Nadal, 37, who missed virtually all of last season, is hoping to compete at the French Open next month where he is the record 14-time champion. The Spaniard said the clash with De Minaur was
RALLY: It was only the second time the Taiwanese has partnered with Kudermetova, and the match seemed tight until they won seven points in a row to take the last set 10-2 Taiwan’s Chan Hao-ching and Russia’s Veronika Kudermetova on Sunday won the Porsche Tennis Grand Prix women’s doubles final in Stuttgart, Germany. The pair defeated Norway’s Ulrikke Eikeri and Estonia’s Ingrid Neel 4-6, 6-3, 10-2 in a tightly contested match at the WTA 500 tournament. Chan and Kudermetova fell 4-6 in the first set after having their serve broken three times, although they played increasingly well. They fought back in the second set and managed to break their opponents’ serve in the eighth game to triumph 6-3. In the tiebreaker, Chan and Kudermetova took a 3-0 lead before their opponents clawed back two points, but