Aston Villa Review – Arsenal weren’t brilliant but we need to build on the psychological boost

Let’s be honest, it wasn’t a great performance, especially in the first half. We gave away 2 goals far too easily again. A pattern stretching back to Everton.

I am getting annoyed with Zinchenko. The opening goal of the game, summed our last 3 weeks. We are sloppy and give possession away far too easily, then one long ball leaves our defender 1 on 1, he doesn’t deal with it, and we concede.

I am not sure what has happened to Saliba and Gabriel? Maybe it’s Partey missing or they are just tired, I’m not sure. Ben White also had a few shaky games, and the way he was left for dead on their second goal was poor. And I am getting even more annoyed with Zinchenko. I know he scored a good equaliser for 2:2, but the guy is virtually anywhere but left back, and we were left exposed again.

It’s bad enough the goals we give away, but some of our misses –  oh my god. Eddie is not good enough, I am sorry. The sooner Jesus is back the better. That’s the 3rd game in a row, he misses critical chances that can swing the game in a different direction. But the one time he did something right and set up Odegaard in front of an open goal, the Norwegian missed it. That miss was criminal. After it, they had a chance, when Ramsdale had to tip it into the bar and we got away with it. A better team could’ve punished us for our sloppiness.

In the end Jorginho hit a beast of a shot that hit the bar, then Emi Martinez’s head and went in. I loved it. It was so poetic. The guy who we sold because he wanted to leave, that comes back every time to have a dig at the club, scored an own goal, then practically assisted us by going up for a corner, avoiding his manager’s orders not to, then leaves an open goal, which eventually Martinelli finds.

In the end our second half performance deserved the 3 points. We went back to the basics. Passing was better, the ball was moving faster, we played with more urgency. We rode our luck a little, but showed some fight and desire and we were rewarded for it.

There were 2 standout players on the day. Jorginho, who was our best player for the second game in a row and Bukayo Saka. That boy is a phenomenal athlete and fighter. He is one of the most kicked players in the league and he struggled with an injury during the entire game, and you could see it, but he was still on the score sheet and still a threat. The guy is 21, it’s simply unbelievable what he has done, considering he’s played almost every game for us in the last 3 years.

Now, we shouldn’t get carried away though, because City dropped points in a game they should’ve easily won and they had all the chances. We must look at ourselves and aknowledge the weaknesses we’ve shown in the last 3 weeks, if we’re to have any hopes of winning the title. By the way Man UTD are not too far behind. 5 points between 1st and 3d is a three horse race in my eyes when there’s 15 games left.

Let’s just take the psychological boost of this game and build on it. I am no longer looking at the table. We dropped 8 points in 10 days and somehow we are still top with a game in hand. The coming fixture list is kind to us, not that we don’t like making it hard, but let’s just go one game at a time, go on a winning run again and see where we get to.