Aston Villa downed a second top Premier League club in four days as they defeated Arsenal this evening.
It was a game Arsenal knew would be tough after seeing Villa defeat Manchester City to win 14 consecutive home matches.
The question on everyone’s mind before the game was, will Arsenal allow them to make it 15?
Unai Emery’s men were good value for money and fought hard as they chased down every ball and flew into tackles at the slightest invite.
It was a performance that Arsenal struggled against even though the scoreline was just 1-0.
Arsenal had their chances but were wasteful with Martin Odegaard missing at least two good ones.
We all saw Liverpool show they might be the team to challenge for the title earlier today, and the Reds are now at the top of the league standings.
For Arsenal to overtake them again, the Gunners must defeat opponents like Villa away from home.
Most players on the pitch today were not at their best, with even William Saliba struggling with Villa’s physical attackers and making several errors.
There are more hostile grounds in the Premier League than Villa Park and winning the league demands we secure points at those type of venues.
Did Arsenal deserve at least a point? Probably but the truth is, we were very blunt up front. That said, there was controversy at the end of the game with a goal disallowed due to handball despite it appearing that Villa’s Matty Cash handled it first.
The lads need to brush themselves down and go again next week.
Very disappointed
I don’t know what to say
Congratulations Villa
We need to regroup and win our next match
Very down
Villa fan here. Sorry but a bit disrespectful. This year we are the team to beat, not Liverpool. We are still under the radar, and it benefits us.
Thanks for the chuckle. Needed it after how terrible we played today.
She has even congratulated you guys. How is that disrespectful?
As for whether Villa are the team to beat time will tell. Liverpool are clearly one of the best in PL and may be a little underrated.
Arsenal overall played better than Aston Villa but lacked efficiency.
Well played Arsenal, really proud despite the defeat. If we continue to play likely this we will win villa 99 times out of 100, and today was one of that defeat. Their gane spirit, control in midfield was excellent. What was missing was that final touch, some time taking extra touch, some time slowing things in final third, and only Martinez a gift from Arsenal saved villa from conceding, and Raya is not up to that level.
It was a good performance, but bad result!
Gai – just shut up, we don’t need your negativity after losing.
Why they didn’t check Saka goal on VAR?!! The standard if refreeing on Britain is a disgrace….
Didn’t need to. He was so offside he was almost back at the Emirates.
No no no look AT it again bro
Looks offside to me. Don’t even need to draw lines because it’s so obvious
WELL OFFSIDE . I loathe clearly biased untruths!
My reflection is a little different, more general and not so specific to the disputed phases. Even the stones know that the villa plays perfectly with a very high defense her line, almost perfect, ok? As a result, all her lines are solid … so it’s very easy to catch the opponent offside, it’s even more difficult to break it when you play from the sides, as we constantly try to make punches with sacks, Martinelli. After all, I don’t want to be overdeveloped, hyper-analytical. However, even the most ignorant person knows the way the villa is defended, and then when the opportunity is presented with a counterattack, he can finish you off. But mainly what seems inaccessible It has to do with raising their defensive line, and we saw that again yesterday. There is no antidote for this style of play. We have to play every match, with the same style and where he sits. the ball? This is not correct. I think that each team should clearly keep its identity as a basis, however another plan should be added depending on the opponent. Such a dry head cannot like Arteta’s, and then he cries for the referees
Because we could all see it was offside.
We were supposed to at least draw the game, but we weren’t clinical. Aston Villa’s offside trap was immaculate and we came with a tactic similar to what they played against three days ago
Gai, I once said in a post before the match that our front men needs to take their chance. Villa want exceptional today. Also Villa had a bit of luck Arsenal goal could have stood in some case. We move.. the Boys didn’t play bad. Next up is UCL on Tuesday
There were a lot of misplaced passes in the first half and Arteta used his usual tactic despite having watched Man City’s loss at Villa Park
GAI, has it EVER occurred to you that we’re not city?
No Arsenal actually dominated the game and played much better than City. But we didn’t take our chances. Watch the stats
That’s exactly it. When so many people see the same negative scene, why then do some people ridicule us and call us platform coaches?
Both the matches we lost involved two VAR decisions. Though both decisions might be correct, especially this one today but I guess we can only hope we win from here.
Honestly this time doesn’t look like champions material.
If even one of Saliba/Gabriel gets injured we are done.
*team
Why they didn’t check Saka goal on VAR?!! The standard of refreeing in Britain is a disgrace….
I’ve answered this once already😜 How many times do you need telling?
Be told PIRES!! AS SEVERAL HONEST FANS HAVE ALREADY TOLD YOU AND STOP FANTASISING AND FOOLING YOURSELF THAT A CLEAR OFF SIDE WAS ONSIDE.
iT WAS NOT! BUT IT WAS EASILY OFFSIDE.
Nothing wrong with the performance with the exception of our shooting boots especially Odegaard. We had enough chances to win the game. Surprised we did not win with Villa playing the high line and I thought Trossard instead of Martinelli was a mistake considering this.
Keep calm guys, this is not a season defining defeat. We’ll surely get back up, this is no setback at all.
But it does highlight some of our weaknesses won’t you think?
Lack of Killer Instinct
I agree. Not end of the world at all. I don’t think we’ve played badly the past two games honestly. I’m happy with most aspects. It’s just bad decisions by Raya against Luton, and bad decisions by attackers against villa. We are producing decent stuff, but the mentality of our players, I don’t know sometimes. Maybe they all need to be a bit more brave?
They’re in perfect conditim. Nothing to worry about.
“Condition” sorry.
Brave? That’s it bro. Especially, White. He is so naive that he doesn’t deserve the hype he often got. How I wish Timber will return in January. That aside, we can not over emphasize the need for a goal scoring striker. We lost today because we were wasteful. Odegaard the most culprit. Arteta is too predictable. He doesn’t have plan B. Ordinarily, Kiwior should have started ahead of Zinny. I wonder why Jorginho did not come in the second half so that Rice move to a more advance role. This is a match we have the opportunity to win but lost due to not being clinical and dubious officiating.
Let me say this, it will be foolhardy of us to think that FA will give us decisions after what had happened over Newcastle match. So, let’s be serious and win our matches squarely.
A defeat is not a set back ?
Be humble
I said Arsenal would have to play to a level we have not seen this season to win at Villa Park
Maybe we are just not good enough to be Champions?
No disgrace In that
This defeat in particular is not, i also expect we drop points at villa park and Anfield but not for the reasons you think. We are more than good to go on and win the tittle and i’m confident we will. Just a matter of time it becomes clear to pessimists like you.
It’s not pessimistic
I was correct you were wrong
Being positive all the time means your opinion lacks any substance because we know your simply going to be just be positive
We will lose at Anfield in two weeks time and you will say we are great
Wrong about what exactly? As i said earlier i did’nt expect us to win at Villa park not expecting a win at Anfield either although not for the reasons you outlined. Btw we are great regardless the result at Anfield.
Exactly that’s what I said
Whatever happens your say we are great so your opinion has zero substance
The VAR decision was correct as they were focusing on the ball landing on Havertz’s back hand and not on his arm. That point was were the ball ricocheted on Cash’s hand as well.
On the match, we did create good chances and I was particularly impressed with how we managed to beat Villa’s offside trap a few times but no final third fortune. Game was a good contest albeit with a serious lack of urgency from the players and lots of ineffective and pressure inducing sideward passes. One thing I did note was, whether Ramsdale saves the goal which seemed like going through Raya’s palms….I didn’t want to enter this debate but feels like it might be time we see Ramsdale for some games. Attackers were hit and miss, was an off day.
But we pick ourselves up and go again. COYG!
Saka scored a goal wich looked to me onside
I was so hoping for VAR to overturn the refs decision with some profitable revelation and Kai’s goal stood…..alas, that wasn’t the case. Hopefully we’ll be back to our winning ways next game !
That bloody John McGuin is a pain in the A$%e. Mind you, he used his with good effect today when holding off our players lol
No way in hell will that absolute piece of aussie trash Gillard manning the var will overturn a decision against us even when it must be. AND i am aussie. It shows how bad the FA is to hire an aussie ref reject .Whenever that garbo is on, we lose points
@Admin Pat,
I think certain choice of words shouldn’t be used on Arsenal fans page in an article. Especially when we had painfully lost. ” Determined Villa shoots down Arsenal” not a good feel is the writter an Arsenal fan at all?
No, it’s OK. The truth. may be painful, but we’re. not all flakes.
I thought Martinelli has been very poor lately and was again poor today. Got in so many good position but his end product is a disaster. He certainly needs real competition.
Today again showed how thin our squad is. There was limited quality on the bench, and so we were limited to very few changes—very late on for that matter.
Doesn’t limited quantity man that we need a proper midfielder, a real striker and a real attack focused wingback instead of White or even Tomiyasu? We are too predictable and have few get of goal passes
In Big games you have to be clinical WE were not…I am affraid we’r too short of expérience to be champions
Squad depth becoming worrying. Also we just don’t use our depth like we should. Why not take a risk and put on Reiss first instead of trossard who gave a predictably weak performance. It was NOT a bad game from us. It really all comes down to bad finishing and bad decision making. That can be fixed but it’s been annoying to see consistently this season. When you don’t take your chances you deserve to get punished. Odegaard the standout culprit today. He’s just not producing the same magic he did last season. Who in the squad puts pressure on him tho? Nobody. Even KDB gets benched when he’s not doing well. Saka also, hasn’t had a full 90 this season where he just completely terrorizes a defense. It’s just random moment where he produces this season. We need constant, efficient attacks instead of sporadic moments where it seems it’s more like we are willing the ball into the net instead of actually scoring through the quality of our play. Do others feel the same about this or just me? I’m not all doom and gloom about this game, just curious why this season we seem so drab so much in attack
Yes Saka nowhere at best level
Doku at City or Leon Bailey at Villa are far more efficient. Unfortunately we have no options anyway.
Illustrates the point that we NEED a top-class striker.
A goal here and there from Jesus is simply not enough and Eddie is simply not good enough. Eddie exists at Arsenal on the back of a run of goal scoring several years back that he has failed to get anywhere near since.
A top-class striker that will give us 20+ goals a season and we would be unstoppable.
Other than that, we didn’t play badly just didn’t take our chances at all.
As much as I dislike him, I thought Martinez had a really good game. Made some saves and controlled his box, although I thought he got away with two or three handballs when kicking out from his hand. He was at least a yard outside his box each time. You never see a ref give those, or even warn the keeper.
No problems with Raya today. If he made any mistakes I missed them.
Jax, I will be sending in an article about theVERY regular keepers(PLURAL) handball when clearly outside the area when stepping outside it still holding the ball. It is a disgrace that it regularly goes unpunished and unmentoined by almost EVERYONE. Not by you and I though!
I will welcome your thoughtful comments on it when it appears, probably on Wednesday coming.
We were very poor today across the board.
ZIn gave up the ball a number of times. His indecision and delay on the ball has not been addressed. That is on the manager.
Martineli was poor but has been and Saka was also crap today.
Both wingers need re-adjustment because the way we use them makes them predictable hence the rough treatment from behind when they receive the ball at their feet. Arteta needs to start moving them around so they can receive balls with spato run. Watch Leon Baileys goal vs City.
Typical of a winger geting the ball with room to run . obviously Emery has an effect on that maybe MA can learn. We are not creating enough chances and this will catch up with us in tough away games with teams that can do good defensive work. What was starnge for me is how pedestrian was our approch to beating the high line Vila set up. Ussually runs for deeper positions will wreak havoc ina high line and I though he could have used Havertz or the wingers to do that.
MAybe he needed to be in the touchline.
The worst part is when you look at the bench we nowhere Liverpool is and that will hurt us unless we can get another signing in January that will have an impact.
Am waiting for the day we will lose fairly
It was either a goal or a penalty.Cash handled the ball when it was goal bound before Havertz contact. Add this to Sakas questionable offside and am so done.
Matches like this highlight why we need a clinical C.F.
I doubt if we will win anything without upgrading our offensive department.
And I believe that the most fair thing would be a draw…. the villa looks very solid, and has assimilated to the fullest what the coach wants. Also, once again it was verified that not you can play against teams that are in a very good moon, as if they have protection from the universe Especially on the post we had from the Martinez save….plus he limped unusually two odegaard times. we moved on…. we want reinforcements, in all lines and in fact in the center more. This is the best sight in the world for football fans. I would like Artera sorry Arteta, to work a little, with the strikers to acquire faster thinking …. they take too long to make a decision, and in there they lose the ball many times. The attack must Let it end, we are wasting a lot of time, without courage and self-confidence, as if they were blinding their minds, in front of closed spaces. This is where he wants to throw the weight, I think. And one last thing, it’s a shame, if it comes out Saka once changed, early, why is he defiantly stepping on his ass? who is not there, to go warm the bench…. the child is not there this year, he stayed in March last year. All nerves, slow thinking,He achieves none of his inspirations, because he has obviously become predictable and boring, maybe if he switched sides to the right side with his left foot it would be a renaissance. However this What is glaring is that for the championship and Europe we want a brave reinforcement, a brave ridding, from the mediocrity of despair, and I wish the Dutch defender a speedy recovery us, which would really give us another level
With the chances we had we should have won by a couple of goals but just did not have our shooting boots on today. I think Zinchenko is wasted at left back and in fact not very good there, when he moved into midfield though, where he plays for Ukraine, he put though some very good passes to the front players. Saka was targeted again today and needs a rest before he breaks. Even Rice and Saliba made mistakes today but we move on, result wasn’t season defining and Havertz is at least improving game on game, love his aggressive play.
GB, what about switching wings for Saka and Martinelli?
Agree on Havertz, he certainly put himself about.
Those who say our bench was weak… add Timber, Partey, Tomiyasu ESR and Tierney (?) and one might just begin to understand why it looked so weak.
We have messed up with the contracts for Nketiah and Nelson I’m afraid – we won’t be able to get them off the books… if we want too!!
Ken, just to point out that we CANNOT “ADD” PERENNIALLY INJURED DPLAYERS
Do you think MA knew they would be “perrenially injured players” when he was building his squad Jon?
I’m writing about the squad he has built up, regardless of whether their available or not.
Yes, every coach should know
Injuries are always the worst excuse. Every team gets them
Injuries are not the “worst” excuse. They are relevant considerations. MC have a number of key injuries which have clearly impacted their performances. Liverpool have been limited by injuries to key players in the last few years which affected their performances in the PL. It was probably an important limiting factor for them last season. Last season injuries to key players also affected Arsenal during the run-in.
Yeah need to stop using him as a left back . Can’t defend , doesn’t track back , gives the ball away . The experiment failed stop trying it please
How was the foul on Jesus not a penalt??
Was disappointed we weren’t attacking that high line more frequently, especially with the speed and quickness of our front three. Our “control” game let them stay with their high line and pressure our offense higher up the pitch. We are good enough to let them have the ball deep in their own end for the chance of some odd man rushes past that line. Somebody noted we should have been braver and couldn’t agree more
Oh well. Jus sayin
@jonfox
If you paid attention, you’d see that I do and did…Jus sayin
Jus losin’
@Jax
Yep…😂
In my opinion the VAR and Referee always mess up games for Arsenal I don’t know why, the two matches we lost these season are pure officiating errors if not we should hv still been unbeaten in the league. Last season they deny us the league by poor simple errors again these season they hv deny us two piont already. How are we going to win the league if these continues
What I can say here it will be SHAMEFUL and SHAMEFUL on arsenal, to end up the 2nd successful season without winning anything. This is the spirit of barrenness looming at arsenal. is this is how we’re going to survive as arsenal fans? Really. Mercy be upon us.
There was a chance to make a real statement and go 8 points clear of city but failed to take it and just like last season will come back to haunt us we just fail to turn up when it counts unfortunately this team don’t have the mental strength to win anything!
When Saka and Martinelli have a bad game on the same day, we usually suffer. But adding Jesus and Odegaard to the list of poor performers showed exactly why we lost today. All four of them had a bad day in the attacking third. Even Rice didn’t have a great game.
When you consider Villa we’re only really dangerous in the first 10 mins we really could put it down to tiredness? We had chances but failed to take them. On another day it may have been 1 – 3 to us. Jus saying!
This is why it was so disappointing. Villa only good for 10 minutes. Onus was on us to respond and we just never did. Poor from us to dominate the game create chances and end up with absolutely nothing to show
A bad day yes, and for our sakes hopefully we can turn it around and regain some momentum. But I hope it was Villa’s tiredness you were referring to. After all we did have an extra days rest. Basically we lost because we don’t have a cutting edge in the midfield to take the pressure off Odegaard who we should know will have these type of games where he can’t deliver. An overlapping fullback would also have helped relieve Saka or Martinellii and keep their defenders running backwards.
We desperately need a striker at the beginning of January. Do we REALLY want to win the EPL. Ivan Toney would give us a true PLAN B. VAR must be withdrawn, as it is now ruining games.
VAR is a bent system run by bent refs, they’re betting on certain teams and making sure it goes their way using VAR to get decisions go their way, it needs scrapping now!
We lost away from home to a team that is on top form, that said, if Odegaard had his shooting boots on we would come away with at least a point. I am not having a go at him, it’s just the way it goes some times. No panic.
Not winning anything this season with the striking and goalkeeper options we have, Raya has been a massive flop and Ramsdale won’t be coming back anytime soon, he’ll probably be sold in January, as for the forwards we’ve got Jesus and Nketiah combined don’t score enough goals to seriously push us towards the league or champions league, we need to buy some quality in January up front and in goal.
I agree. This whole thing came from our splashing money on wrong positions. There was an article talking about how MA didn’t believe a CF was needed. He also wasted 75M in Havertz that he still couldn’t figure out where the position should be. If we didn’t want any back up for Saka, Partey or somewhere in the middle field, a CF would have helped enormously. Honestly, we need to properly replace Granit, but undone. If we win nothing, which I would love MA to prove me wrong, the failure would be a complete self inflicted pain: Raya, don’t get me started.
Morning
Whilst it is a big blow to lose and give away 3 points it was a bigger concern that a lot of our players were a 5 and 6 at the most yesterday
I didn’t think they dominated us like they did city
I think we had enough chances to put them to the sword by didn’t take them
Out tactics have to be questioned at times when villa are playing for off side and a high line and we are try to walk it through the middle them rather then drop it over the top
All to slow and pedestrianised at times.
When we did we cut them apart but final ball or finish were appalling
Fist time we are not talking about the goalkeeper 🙄
Stinking game and result so put to bed and move on
23 to go
Ps
We will get our revenge back at the Emirates and cut them to ribbons
Stay positive
Onwards and upwards
Not enough people on here giving Emery and Villa the respect they deserve. Well done to them, great team.
Same issues that have been clear for years are still there, need a top striker and a 2nd DM/CDM
I wonder why arteta doesn’t take risk sometimes. Saka was so poor today especially in the second half that I thought he should have been the first to be subbed. He could have tried playing Jesus on the right wing and just switching things up a little bit. Also odeggard was kind of slow in his play. Zinchenko also gave a lot of passes away. Another thing is how we lack options on the bench. Villa changed 5 of their players and still looked okay. But we only made 3 changes and just one of those player seemed good enough to play. We seriously need quality players on the bench and a good strike because Jesus and nketiah aren’t quality enough.
I only caught the second half but I remember thinking to myself, if we lose but play this well, I wouldn’t mind. We were creating so much in the first 20 minutes of the 2nd half, just let down by poor finishing and final touches. I see, as usual, a lot of overreaction from the fanbase, but the season is long and the future is very bright.
Congrats to Villa. They were very lucky to come away with three points but Unai has worked miracles in a short space of time and made a mockery of Poch and Ten Hag’s purported multimillion rebuilds.
We dust ourselves off and we go again. COYG