And we need to be fast now since White is now threatening to play Qg4 once the e5-pawn is protected by the rook.
White tries to protect the e5-pawn, but now we can clearly see how the black knight is superior to the white bishop.
This move is very strong! The white queen should keep an eye on f2. That is why Qd2 is mandatory. The problem for White is that when the knight arrives to e5 later, f3 will be easier to access!
Capturing the e5-pawn with the knight in the next move and we can see how the light squares are extremely weak. Black is much better.
Aronian employs a very interesting positional idea, trading his fianchettoed bishop for a knight. What he gets in return are doubled pawns on the c-file which become easy targets and weaknesses to attack.
Now White has a very easy plan, to recycle the e1-knight and attack the pawns along the c-file.
All the white pieces will coordinate along the c-file with tremendous pressure.