LONDON, England (AFP) — Olivier Giroud, Mesut Ozil and Santi Cazorla sparkled as Arsenal closed on the Premier League’s top four by crushing goal-shy Aston Villa 5-0 at the Emirates Stadium yesterday.

Ozil freed Giroud to open the scoring in the eighth minute and the France striker returned the favour in the second half before goals from Theo Walcott, Cazorla and Hector Bellerin completed a one-sided victory.

It was a fifth consecutive win in all competitions for Arsene Wenger’s men and took them level on points with fourth-place Southampton, who saw Ryan Bertrand sent off in a 1-0 loss at home to Swansea City.

The defeat saw Paul Lambert’s Villa — three points above the relegation zone in 16th place — set an unwanted club record of six consecutive league games without scoring.

The Midlands club, who host leaders Chelsea next weekend, have gone 10 hours and 12 minutes since Christian Benteke found the net against Manchester United on December 20.

Ozil was making his first league start for the Gunners since October 5 and he immediately made an impact by cleverly using the outside of his left foot to flick a pass through to Giroud.

The Frenchman had only Brad Guzan to beat and after briefly getting ahead of the ball, he calmly chipped the Villa goalkeeper to register his fifth goal in his last six league appearances.

After Cazorla had hit the post, Ozil doubled Arsenal’s lead 11 minutes into the second half, gliding onto an elegant, piercing pass from Giroud and trundling a shot into the bottom-right corner.

Walcott had had to wait even longer for a league start, having last started on New Year’s Day 2014 due to a serious knee injury, and he marked the occasion by gathering Cazorla’s pass and curling home in the 63rd minute.

Villa’s porous defence meant that Alexis Sanchez’s absence with a hamstring problem was barely felt by Arsenal and after Giroud had hit the bar with a header, Cazorla added a fourth goal from the penalty spot.

Young full-back Bellerin got in on the act in injury time, meeting Cazorla’s lay-off with a precise, side-foot shot from 20 yards that went in via the base of the left-hand post.

Buoyed by recent wins over Arsenal and Manchester United, Southampton made an enterprising start against Swansea at St Mary’s, with Nathaniel Clyne teeing up James Ward-Prowse for a shot that Lukasz Fabianski saved.

But after hitting the post from long range early in the second half, Jonjo Shelvey gave Swansea a smash-and-grab win in the 83rd minute by crashing a shot inside Fraser Forster’s left-hand post from 25 yards.

Swansea captain Ashley Williams produced two goal-line blocks in quick succession to deny Sadio Mane an equaliser before Bertrand saw red for an ugly challenge on Modou Barrow, who was stretchered off.

Arsenal’s French striker Olivier Giroud (left) dribbles away from Aston Villa’s English midfielder Fabian Delph during their English Premier League match at the Emirates Stadium in London, England, yesterday. Arsenal won 5-0. (PHOTO: AFP)