Arsenal won their last match in dramatic fashion in Luton. However they had no luck at Villa Park as an early John McGinn goal settled the two sides in a hugely frustrating game for Arsenal.
Aston Villa under Unai Emery have been the 23/24 Premier League surprise team. Although many expected a strong season from The Villans, not many expected they would be 3rd in the table come early December. But they are and continue to go from strength to strength with their home form being the key to their strong start to the season, with Villa winning their last 14 games at Villa Park.
With that knowledge, Mikel Arteta – who was in the stands due to a match suspension -made one change with Oleksandr Zinchenko coming in for Jakub Kiwior. However, the Arsenal manager would have been disappointed when his side gave up an early goal when Leon Bailey skipped past Gabriel and cut the ball back to Villa skipper McGinn who spun and struck the ball into the far corner to give Villa the lead.
Arsenal needed a quick reaction, but that didn’t quite happen as The Gunners just couldn’t get the basics right. Struggling to move the ball around in the opening 20 minutes of the contest. But they did begin to improve around the 25 minute mark with Bukayo Saka forcing a comfortable save out of Emi Martinez, and soon later the former Arsenal man made a strong stop to deny Martin Odegaard from close range. The Arsenal captain should have scored after Kai Havertz did very well to win the ball back following good pressing to force the home side into a mistake. Something that was a theme of the first half but Arsenal couldn’t capitalise.
Villa’s high line gave Arsenal hope of finding an equaliser as they constantly came close to exploiting the gaps but couldn’t force the ball into the net. Saka had the ball in the net but was called offside and Gabriel Jesus probably should have won a penalty after the Brazilian was kicked in the box by fellow countryman Douglas Luiz.
Unai Emery made changes with Matty Cash and Lars Dendonker coming on in the 65th minute and by that point, Arsenal’s pressure and chance creating came to a slow halt as Villa looked to hold on for the win. It looked like Arsenal had again came up with a late goal as Kai Havertz forced the ball over the line in the 90th minute, however the goal was ruled out for handball in somewhat controversial fashion.
Villa held on though, condemning Arsenal to their second defeat of the season and losing top spot in the process. Their next game will be away at PSV In the Champions League.
Player Ratings:
David Raya: 6 – Made a few solid stops and couldn’t do anything about the goal
Ben White: 5 – Could have done better for the goal as he allowed McGinn to easily turn
William Saliba: 6 – Often struggled up against Watkins but also had some nice moments
Gabriel: 6 – Wasn’t great for the goal but improved as the game went on
Oleksandr Zinchenko: 4 – A poor afternoon for the Ukrainian as he struggled defensively all afternoon
Declan Rice: 6 – For the first time this season, the Englishman wasn’t great. Not bad but arguably his worst Arsenal performance so far
Martin Odegaard: 6 – Should have scored in the first half with the best Arsenal chance of the match
Kai Havertz: 7 – Arsenal’s best player on the night. Had some nice moments on the ball but really shone off it with some excellent dual winning to help in transitions and create a lot of Arsenal’s chances which they failed to take
Bukayo Saka: 6 – Like Rice, wasn’t bad but by his high standards he could have done a lot better
Gabriel Jesus: 6 – Arsenal’s brightest spark going forwards but still not brilliant
Gabriel Martinelli: 5 – One of the wingers poorest Arsenal showings. Just wasn’t as effective as we all know he can be