Report: Aston Villa 0-1 Arsenal (inc. goal)

Arsenal: Raya, White, Mosquera, Gabriel, Calafiori, Rice, Lewis-Skelly, Odegaard, Tzolis, Saka, Havertz

Subs: Kepa, Hincapie, Konsa, Zubimendi, Guimaraes, Merino, Eze, Madueke, Gyokeres

Arsenal maintained their winning start to the new Premier League season with a hard fought 1-0 win over Aston Villa at Villa Park, thanks to a second half goal from Bukayo Saka.

Mikel Arteta named the same starting eleven that cruised past Coventry on opening night, with new signings Ezri Konsa and Bruno Guimaraes welcome additions to an already strong bench.

There was no room for Ethan Nwaneri who has been linked with a late loan move to Borussia Dortmund.

FIRST HALF

It was a slow start from Arsenal who struggled to keep the ball early doors, but they had the first sight of goal when Zion Suzuki came for a Declan Rice corner – got nowhere near it – and left the goal gaping for Gabriel who headed wide.

But Villa still threatened on occasion and Emi Buendia whacked the crossbar from distance although it was clear Christos Tzolis had been fouled in the build-up. Bizarrely, referee Jarred Gillett didn’t give anything in real time which bemused most of the yellow shirts.

Approaching the half hour mark, the Gunners still looked very stodgy and their passing game could not get going at all, with a number of attacking moves breaking down at key points.

Villa were also finding their exits too easily with Suzuki distributing well from the back, but the ease at which they were winning their duels will have frustrated Arteta who saw his team get countered far too often.

There was also some concern for Tzolis who had been booked very harshly earlier on, and found himself needing to stop a Villa transition which could’ve drawn a second yellow card but thankfully the referee opted against it. The Greece international was not playing well but some of the treatment for him/against him felt very strange – including a needless kick from Matty Cash that nearly went unpunished.

The half ended without a shot on target for either side, although this felt very ‘second half of last season’ for Arsenal who were frustratingly slow and sloppy across the pitch.

SECOND HALF

Arteta wasted little time changing things with Eberechi Eze replacing Tzolis at the break, which was probably the right decision based on his difficult first half.

But both sides continued to cancel each other until the Gunners were awarded a penalty after 55 minutes, when Ian Maatsen ran across Bukayo Saka and tripped him running onto an overhit Rice pass.

However, the decision was rightly overturned by VAR with the contact taking place outside of the box, with Martin Odegaard curling the resulting free kick inches wide with Suzuki beaten. That seemed to kick Arsenal into gear who took the lead minutes later after putting together their best move of the night.

With Villa camped in their own third, Cristhian Mosquera did well to find Eze through the lines, who spotted Riccardo Calafiori on the underlap and his low cross found Saka in the middle making an excellent run from out to in – and all he had to do was finish from close range. 1-0.

That should’ve been Arsenal’s cue to exert some control on the game but it had the opposite effect, with the Gunners giving the ball away continuously, inviting Villa back into things with some bizarre decision making and more misplaced passes.

With 20 minutes to play, Arteta made two more changes with Bruno Guimaraes and Mikel Merino replacing Myles Lewis-Skelly and Odegaard, in hope of regaining some midfield control after a shaky few minutes.

And they had a golden chance to double their lead when Bruno Guimaraes sent Havertz through with a lovely first time pass, but despite having the whole Villa half to run into, his effort was well saved by Suzuki. The German was later ruled offside but that’s a chance you want to see hitting the back of the net anyway.

The last 15 minutes were horrible to watch, with Arsenal battling and fighting for every ball without much cohesion as Villa poured bodies forward in search of an equaliser. The home side were getting increasingly rough and physical off the ball too, with a number of bad challenges as they got more desperate even though Gillett seemed intent on not booking anybody in claret and blue.

But they didn’t really threaten David Raya despite the fiery atmosphere and the Gunners managed to eat up eight minutes of injury time with various free kicks, clearances and running to the corner before the referee eventually blew up and ended our misery.

This was always going to be difficult but we made hard work of it – when don’t we make hard work of it? Two wins from two, two clean sheets and Chelsea are next up at the Emirates.

The post Report: Aston Villa 0-1 Arsenal (inc. goal) appeared first on Arseblog News - the Arsenal news site.