Arsenal make it two wins from two games as the Premier League champions had to battle to a hard-fought victory over Aston Villa
Arsenal endured a much stronger test at Villa Park as Bukayo Saka’s second-half goal proved to be the difference in a hard-fought 1-0 win over Aston Villa.
After kicking off the Premier League season on the opening night 10 days ago, Arsenal this time have had to watch their rivals play before them, with Manchester City and Chelsea extending their winning starts.
And after watching Brighton batter Villa 4-0 on the opening day, with all goals coming in the first half an hour, Arsenal have had the perfect amount of time to prepare for the clash against a Villans side that looks almost unrecognisable from last season.
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But Arsenal didn’t enjoy the dominance it looked like they would be hoping for on paper. In fact, Mikel Arteta’s side almost fell behind on 13 minutes when Emi Buendia smashed the crossbar from 20 yards; however, VAR would likely have got involved if the Argentine’s effort had thundered in after Christos Tzolis appeared to be fouled in the build-up.
Arsenal only troubled Villa from set pieces in the first-half, utilising their aerial superiority, and with Villa having lost their set-piece mogul Austin McPhee to Chelsea, it looked as though the Gunners would look to break through via set pieces.
Especially after Villa debutant in goal Zion Suzuki came flying off his line and missed the ball from the first delivery of the game. A chance that Gabriel should have done better with as it spooned off the Brazilian’s 50p head.
Arsenal were far from their free-flowing best and were outworked by Villa, who also had the better chances of the game at the same point they were 4-0 down on the south coast last weekend.
Unai Emery certainly set his team up to be more compact and not make anything easy for Arsenal while trying to play off the energy of new £65million signing Nicolas Jackson from Chelsea – which went as well as anyone could have imagined. The first-half eventually finished, to the relief of everyone watching, as an opening 45 minutes without a shot on target thankfully ended.
Something had to change to inject life into the Gunners and Arteta made the move at half-time to try just that as Eberechi Eze was introduced for Tzolis, who had got no change out of Matt Cash down the left – a move that proved pivotal come full-time as Arteta utilised his substitutes brilliantly.
The opening 10 minutes drifted past without change until Arsenal were incorrectly awarded a penalty. VAR thankfully clarified the apparent foul by Ian Maatsen on Saka happened outside the box, but the coming together even being a foul in the first place was incredibly controversial after Saka had initiated the contact knowing he wouldn’t reach Declan Rice’s overhit through ball.
The resulting free-kick almost broke the deadlock when Martin Odegaard cutely dropped a clipped effort over the bar but into the side netting.
However, Arsenal were sparked by the moment and two minutes later Saka opened the scoring with the first shot on target of the game on the hour mark.
Riccardo Calafiori’s overlapping run was spotted by Eze and the Italian got to the byline, cutting the ball back across the six-yard box where Saka met the ball to turn it home in front of Maatsen.
Saka’s goal saw the game finally open up as Villa pushed more players forward on the counter-attack, allowing Arsenal more room to operate when they turned the ball over.
Arsenal’s strength in depth was shown by Bruno Guimaraes and Mikel Merino replacing Myles Lewis-Skelly and Martin Odegaard with 20 minutes to go.
Ezri Konsa also made his debut to a very mixed reception at Villa Park following his £55m move from Villa in the summer, replacing Cristian Mosquera, who hobbled off with an apparent hamstring injury.
Arsenal had to dig in for a seemingly excessive eight minutes of added time, but toothless Villa failed to muster a chance, and a shot on target in the entire match for the second time this season. While the Gunners won thanks to the strength off the bench, their fellow Champions League side look ravaged following a number of high profile exits and uninspiring signings.