Arsenal are playing like champions this season, even more so when they just beat Aston Villa in an intense 2-1 match. Things did not look as good for Arsenal just a few months back, especially after suffering a decade plus failure. It was a great win due to tiny margin given to Arsenal for a possible win in this match.
Arsenal’s very own winger, Bukayo Saka clipped a teaser crossing in Gabriel Martinelli’s way and handled the ball to the far post to score. The effort to work together in Arsenal shows the major difference between them and Aston Villa.
Then Arsenal’s Japanese footballer Takehiro Tomiyasu found Saka after Martinelli made the ground. However, Villa had a strong defence and made sure Martinelli lost the ball. Unfortunately for Villa, just a few minutes later the Brazilian player ambushed them and finished unnoticed.
The Aston Villa coach, Steven Gerrard had this to say, “We got the game exactly where we want it and then we go and shoot ourselves in the foot.” He then added, “We have ourselves to blame for conceding so quickly. We speak about this most days and it is really frustrating that the messages don’t seem to be getting through.”
‘The first half was probably one of the best we have played. We could have scored three, four, five. We didn’t kill the game and then in this league, the game is alive,’ said Mikel Arteta, who did little to quell concerns midfielders Thomas Partey and Mohamed Elneny are facing lengthy periods out with respective thighs and knee injuries.
“The way we are performing and playing, we need to continue. Again, there are a lot of things that we have to improve and you could see that in the second half, but the way we played in the first half, the amount of chances, how much we generated, how dominant we were and the energy that we generated is really pleasing as a coach.” Arteta added.
Arsenal’s opponent managed to score a goal up till the 73rd minute. Aston Villa’s Douglas Luiz scored from a corner right after coming on as a substitute and during that time Arsenal was beating his team. Unfortunately for Villa, Martinelli pulled up and gave another score for Arsenal within three minutes, thus giving Arsenal the lead.