Arsenal 4 Aston Villa 0 - Report and pictures
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Olivier Giroud scored a hat-trick as Villa bowed out of the Premier League with defeat at Arsenal.moreThe Frenchman took just five minutes to break the deadlock when he headed home Nacho Monreal's cross.
He then scored twice in the space of as many second half minutes to condemned Villa to a 27th Premier League defeat of the season, before substitute Mikel Arteta's stoppage time shot deflected off keeper Mark Bunn to add further misery.
Villa set-up to defend and rarely threatened, Scott Sinclair sending their best chance wide of the post.
For 78 minutes, the visitors had managed to limit the damage but collapsed over the final 12.
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Admittedly, they were not helped by injuries to Joleon Lescott and Jordan Lyden, which left Carlos Sanchez playing at centre-back in the closing stages. Even then, the shambolic nature of Arsenal's fourth rather summed up a season which has finished with Villa rock bottom of the table.
Bunn was incredibly unlucky to see the ball deflect off himself and into the net. But the chance had arisen from desperate defending, with Micah Richards treading on the ball and allowing Arsenal to break.
Villa's starting line-up featured two changes from the team which drew 0-0 with Newcastle, with Alan Hutton and Ciaran Clark both failing to shake-off respective calf and ankle injuries sustained during the week.
They were replaced by Lyden and Aly Cissokho, the later back after missing the Magpies game through suspension. Fit-again striker Rudy Gestede was handed a place on the bench.
Villa had defended resolutely against the Magpies in order to snap an 11-game losing run but their resistance at the Emirates lasted less than five minutes.
Giroud had scored in his last five games against the claret and blues and wasted no time extending the run, rising unmarked in the box to head home Monreal's cross.
Villa could claim some misfortune, however, with replays showing the ball had clearly gone out of play during the build-up.
Just two minutes later, they might have delivered the perfect response but Laurent Koscielny was alert to recover and deny Scott Sinclair a tap-in, after Jordan Ayew had wrestled himself away from Hector Bellerin and looked to find his team-mate.
It was the only time Villa managed to get in behind the home defence, in an opening half where their main preoccupation was to prevent the same happening at the other end.
Gabriel might have doubled Arsenal's lead on the quarter-hour but could get no power on a header which bounced into the arms of Bunn.
More often than not, the hosts were their own worst enemy and guilty of over-complication, as they looked to break down a visiting defence which sat deeper and deeper.
On the half-hour they became more direct and went close twice in the space of a minute, first when Sanchez cut in from the left and fired a low shot inches wide of the far post.
Moments later the Chilean almost turned provider with a cross which Wilshere, stretching, could only prod wide.
Villa had another opening after that, Sinclair shooting wide after neat work from Ayew.
And the visitors enjoyed their brightest spell of the game early in the second period as they saw plenty of possession but failed to test Petr Cech.
Still it was Arsenal who looked the more likely to add to the scoring, Wilshere reacting with fury when team-mate Sanchez deflected a Cazorla pull-back out of his path.
Villa lost both Lescott and Lyden to injury before Mohamed Elneny, on for Wilshere, volleyed over a Sanchez cross.
With 12 minutes remaining, the hosts side finally doubled their lead as Giroud put the finishing touches on a fine move, sweeping home a Mesut Ozil cross.
Just two minutes later, the Frenchman completed his hat-trick, latching on to Bellerin's pass and sliding a shot past Bunn, after being played onside by Kevin Toner.
Bunn saved Villa from immediate further misery when he got enough on an Alexis Sanchez chip to send it wide after Carlos Sanchez, now playing in the centre of defence, had missed a through ball and allowed his namesake to go clear.
But Bunn could do nothing when, in stoppage time, substitute Arteta hit the bar and the ball bounced down and hit the keeper before rolling over the line.
Arsenal (4-2-3-1): Cech, Bellerin, Koscielny, Gabriel, Monreal, Wilshere (Elneny 69), Coquelin, Ozil (Arteta 88), Sanchez, Cazorla (Campbell 88), Giroud Subs not used: Gibbs, Ramsey,, Iwobi, Ospina (gk).
Villa (5-3-2): Bunn, Lyden (Grealish 74) Bacuna, Lescott (Richards 65), Toner, Cissokho, Sanchez, Westwood, Gana, Sinclair, Ayew Subs not used: Adama, Gil, Hepburn-Murphy, Gestede, Guzan (gk).
