Arsenal beats Cardiff 3-0 in Premier League

CARDIFF, Wales (AP) Aaron Ramsey scored twice against his old team to help Arsenal beat Cardiff 3-0 and provisionally extend its Premier League lead to seven points.

Ramsey headed in a pinpoint cross from Mesut Ozil in the 29th minute to put Arsenal ahead, and finished off the victory on a counterattack in injury time with his 13th goal of the season in all competitions. The Welshman refused to celebrate these two, though, having started his career at Cardiff, where he made his debut at 16.

In between, Ozil set up the second goal as well, slotting a perfectly weighted pass into the area for the onrushing Mathieu Flamini to hammer into the net in the 86th.

The win was Arsenal's sixth in seven away matches in the league this season, and puts the Gunners seven points ahead of Liverpool and Chelsea, who both play on Sunday.

Fraizer Campbell had Cardiff's best chances with headers either side of the break. The first was off target while the second drew an excellent save from Wojciech Szczesny.

The Welsh club slipped to 17th in the table.

Ramsey enjoyed a great reception from the home crowd prior to kickoff, and then almost helped put Arsenal ahead after 70 seconds.

His pass picked out Jack Wilshere, who beat David Marshall with a curling effort which rattled the crossbar.

Striker Olivier Giroud then made an embarrassing error in the 15th when he was offside when Ozil attempted to flick a through ball on to him and stopped when clean through on goal.

However, assistant referee Lee Betts did not raise his flag and, by the time Giroud had realized, Steven Caulker had got back to make the block.