We recently published an article stating that Aston Villa could be pivotal to Arsenal and Manchester City‘s title hopes. And Villa may have just impacted the Premier League title race by defeating City 1-0, in a game in which City boss Pep Guardiola side were totally dominated by the Villans.
Guardiola rarely admits that his team was second-best and that things did not go his way. He didn’t say that when Arsenal beat him 1-0 in the league not long ago, and he also didn’t say it when his club drew 1-1 with Liverpool. However, he admitted that Villa were the better team on Wednesday night, describing them as a well-organized team whose game is fast.
“The better team won,” he said on Manchester City’s website. “Aston Villa was better than us. They are well organised, fast, and [have] physical players and team and they are able to control many aspects.
“That is the reason why they are up there, playing good football, and we could not do it. It’s my duty, my job to find the way to come back.
“I give credit to Aston Villa, first of all. They do it. The first half, we struggled to follow what we spoke [about].
“[We said] something at halftime, [and] it was much better; the team had another dynamic, but we didn’t find the players to make the assist, the cross, the pass.
“We arrive there, but we didn’t have the feeling that ‘oh, we are going to do something’. And we miss it.”
Guardiola’s words may be meaningless to some, but for Arsenal fans, they suggest Villa may be their toughest challenge this season. His statements may imply that if Arsenal can defeat Villa, there will be no other team standing in their way. Prior to City’s losing to Villa on Wednesday night, I suppose Arsenal would have been content with not dropping points against them, but things changed after Villa defeated the reigning champions.
Arsenal now has a point to prove; they must demonstrate that they can function without Arteta on the touchline (he’s banned for that game), that their good run this season, only losing once over the last 15 league games, is a reflection of how good they are, and that losing to Newcastle was simply bad luck (and officials!).
A win versus Villa will plainly demonstrate Arsenal’s desire for the title and what they are ready to do to achieve it after disappointingly missing out on it last season.
Sam P
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I see a draw.
2 – 2
If we lose, what does that show?
The season doesn’t hinge on tomorrow’s game and we have to play them at The Emirates don’t forget.
Yeah, but then we can’t get hyper (not referring to dgr8xt) over an away match against a potential title contender. These big picture comments just simply won’t do, lol.
That’s about the best we can expect from a very good Villa side at home.
Pep is saying anything he can to motivate his players to get through this rough patch of injuries and suspensions. With the proper motivation (after being serial winners for so long) and with Rodri and DeBruyne (at anything close to good form) back on the pitch, I still believe City is the club to beat.
As I’ve mentioned before, it’s mainly how many points they drop until DeBruyne gets up to speed again which will determine whether they hang in the title fight enough to be top of the PL again at the end of the season. Otherwise, will it be us or Pool? While they are in fine home form, I’m still not convinced by AV.
@Bruised Banana
Why can’t he simply be speaking the truth, they were outclassed in every way. And injury or suspensions should have zero affect on a top team with such squad depth…Jus sayin
I believe he was speaking the truth but with an objective of motivating his players to perform better. Injuries or suspensions should have zero effect? IMO, it depends on which ones and how many. We’ll have to agree to disagree on this one.
Emery is on mission and want to prove Arsenal were wrong to sack him. But just imagine if we anyhow able to beat both lpool and villa than we will be at leat 5 clear of top and at least 6 clear of 3rd but that feels too much to ask for. But to be champions these steps are necessary just like how mancity got 6 points from Arsenal last season and won by 5 points. So, yes may be these matches wont decide the title by itself but these are hugely significant ones and will show if we have that mettle, determination and ability to win the highest prize.
City are weak without Rodri and KDB, Arsenal find it hard to play against teams that try to bully,
I wish João Pauhinha was younger,he would have been a perfect replacement for Partey.
I’d be more than happy with a draw but I’m betting there will be quite a few goals and can’t wait to see this game..
With what Evertion did to Newcastle and West Ham to Spurs, anything can happen between Arsenal and Villa.
Arsenal on my mind.
Imo we need to win tomorrow. A draw is not ideal as we will probably drop points at Anfield, so should we not beat Villa it puts more pressure on the team to first beat Brighton at home and then get something at Liverpool otherwise that could potentially be 4-5 drop points in the next three games which would allow Man City to close the gap back and Liverpool leapfrog us into first place.
I feel the wings from arsenal point of view will too much for villa to handle.
We just need Raya not to make too many mistakes.
So bad Arteta is serving a ban you know his presence makes arsenal 12men on the pitch.
It will be nice to see his assistant do the job