Match report – Player ratings – Arteta reaction – Video
Arsenal came away from Villa Park with all three points after what was strange old game yesterday. It could easily have gone the other way, with Ollie Watkins unlikely to have had a good night’s sleep, but it didn’t – thanks to an incredible David Raya save, and a hugely impactful substitute performance from Leandro Trossard.
Mikel Arteta made one change from the side that beat Wolves, Jurrien Timber coming in at left back ahead of Oleksandr Zinchenko. This was quite interesting because in his pre-game press conference, he basically said the Dutchman wasn’t ready to start yet. Another little reminder about how he carefully considers the information he puts out into the public domain.
To say the first half was cagey would be an understatement. It felt a bit like two boxers dancing around the ring, neither willing to throw a punch lest they get suckered themselves. We made a good chance which saw Bukayo Saka’s goal-bound effort excellently saved by Emi Martinez.
Then, in the 25th minute, Watkins Nightmare part 1 was released. Was Gabriel fouled outside the box? Six of one, half a dozen of the other, I guess. If it had been given I don’t think there would have been any complaints, but Villa worked the ball to their main man up front, and he scuffed his shot wide of what was basically an empty net. Raya was going the other way. An incredible miss, and a big let-off from our perspective.
The only other incident of note in the first half was when John McGinn, whose arse is basically Scottish Godzilla in its attempts to flatten everything around it, decided to throw his weight around. When William Saliba was fouled, he booted the ball at him when the defender was on the ground. As he got up to take umbrage with the Villa midfielder, Ben White just booted the ball right back at McGinn. Honestly, I didn’t think it was possible to love him any more than I did, but my Ben White love amp now goes to 11.
Ten minutes into the second half, Villa should have been ahead again. A shot from outside the box deflected off Gabriel and, with Raya back-peddling, rebounded off the crossbar. Arsenal were guilty of ball-watching, Ollie Watkins wasn’t, and reacted by throwing himself at it to head back at goal and, you feared, into the back of the net. No such luck, I’m afraid, because Raya’s reactions were lightning, he was back on his feet and threw out a big paw to not just make the save, but push the ball away from another Villa player who was lurking for a tap-in.
It was an extraordinary piece of goalkeeping, and on top of his fantastic save last week, he’s started this season in fine form. You can certainly talk about why we have needed him, but that’s the job. There will be days when things are quieter for him, but when we’ve needed our keeper to make saves, he’s come up with the goods.
Unai Emery made a couple of changes, and Arteta responded by putting on Trossard for Martinelli. It was an obvious move to make, and when you looked at our bench you couldn’t help but think it told you a lot about what we need to do in the final week of the transfer window. Gabriel Jesus was missing through injury (we’ll find out how serious that is after he has an MRI on his groin), and beyond Trossard it was Eddie Nketiah and Reiss Nelson from an attacking perspective.
So, there was some onus on the Belgian international to produce, and boy did he make a difference. Immediately we had more threat down the left, and it was interesting to hear him talk to Sky Sports afterwards about how he’d told Gabriel to try and find him in space down our left hand side because he’d noticed while watching the game there was room to make an impact from there.
I think it’s also worth pointing out that a period when the White, Saka, Odegaard triangle started to operate with a bit more fluency coincided with the goals we got. The first came when Saka got to the byline and pulled it back into the box. Perhaps there was a touch of good fortune about how the ball broke, but there was nothing fortunate about Trossard’s movement, anticipation, or finish. He stroked it first time into the bottom corner, giving Martinez no chance. His initially muted celebration might have been seen as a message about his involvement from the start, but nothing sent a bigger message than what he did with the ball.
Trossard’s movement in behind, and a great pass from Gabriel, helped bring about the second. Saka was involved, Thomas Partey’s shot from outside the big did give the former Arsenal keeper a chance, but he didn’t take it. I prefer a nice clean finish like Trossard’s, but there was something enjoyable about Martinez getting a hand to it and not keeping it out. The scoreline should have been even more emphatic too, a move down the left saw Rice pull the ball back, but as he has done at that end of Villa Park more than once, Odegaard fluffed his lines in front of goal when it looked easier to score.
That was basically that, bar one moment of danger which the imperious William Saliba snuffed out by making an incredible recovery run to get back and make a tackle in our box. After a shaky performance by his own high standards last week against Wolves, he was outstanding yesterday, and that moment in particular was one of the best pieces of defending you’ll see all season. This team has grown a great disdain for giving the opposition anything, and I love that.
We saw Riccardo Calafiori come on for his full Arsenal debut, he even had time to annoy Martinez which was quite funny, and that was basically that. After two defeats to Villa last season, there was a measure of revenge to this one, and it’s a big three points to take back to North London this early in the campaign.
Afterwards, Mikel Arteta’s post-game comments explained why the game was the way it was in the first half in particular:
They were a little bit different to what they’ve been doing especially at home, but that’s it. We have to adapt. We’re going to have to play a lot of games like that. Their holding midfielder had a very specific behaviour with our attacking midfielders as well. We had to find something else and the moment we understood the game we created more and more problems.
And also the introduction of Trossard:
Well, we had to change the momentum of the game. We had 10 to 12 minutes that we suffered in the second half and we had to change something. And Leo’s got the ability to change the game. His end product is unbelievable. I think he had two shots, two great balls in the box. That could have been another goal or two. So that’s what you need. When it’s not enough with the start, there’s someone that has to come in and do the job.
Overall, a really big win. The early season imperfections were on display at times, not least with those two big chances Villa had, but as much as a striker getting you the goals to win a game can be said to have had a great game, the same is true of David Raya’s and his saves. It’s a team effort, and you need all the pieces to complete the puzzle. It leaves us on 6 points, with two clean sheets in a row, and we can work this week on being better again when we face Brighton in the early kick-off next Saturday.
Ok, that’s your lot for now. Have a great Sunday folks.
