Yesterday’s 1-0 loss at Villa Park pretty much sums up Arsenal’s campaign this season so far, as Watkin’s goal coming at just 74 seconds after the match had started, was enough for the men in Claret and Blue to snatch 3 points against the visitors. After this result, Villa climbs up to 8th in the standing whereas Gunners are still 10th on the list and may well get pushed down to the latter half of the table where their dream of getting into top-four on the points table is now starting to get more-and-more distant.
Arsenal showed a pretty good fight as they huffed and puffed but couldn’t get the equalizing goal that they needed. The Gunners conceded the goal just inside 2 minutes after a pretty nervous start which saw them being sloppy on the field as Gabriel Magalhaes, who replaced David Luiz for this match, intercepted John McGinn’s cross and the loose ball fell to Cedric Soares, who tried to return the ball to his centre-half but only managed to let Bertrand Traore nip in and cut the ball back to Ollie Watkins, who shot on goal was deflected off by Rob Holding which eventually found the far corner of the goal. This goal also meant that Mat Ryan concede on his premier league debut before even touching the ball, a stat that he would never want in his resume as a goalkeeper.
The Arsenal manager said that his side cannot win premier league matches if they continue to make the same mistakes and shoot themselves on their own feet. “We just gave them the ball, a moment you make a mistake and they will punish you,” said Arteta to the BBC Sport in a post-match interview.
The old errors committed by the defence line were shown again as they missed David Luiz and Arteta needs to find a permanent solution to this issue as the defense Unit should be more responsible and should be supporting more to the team.
Other than that, the movements and some plays by the forwards weren’t very good and lacked flair which resulted in Arsenal not being able to score goals. Pepe and Saka were very good on the flanks and constantly looked to score goals. Saka was one of the best players who showed creativity for the Gunners and was clipped countless times by the Villa defenders and Pepe, who was a constant threat for the Villa’s defensive line as with his movements, he came very close to scoring a goal for his side on many occasions, but was denied as you need to do better despite being a dangerous threat for the opposition defense. He could have done better by giving the ball more to Emile Smith-Rowe, who plays the no. 10 position as he needed options.
Arsenal lacked the finishing touch which is needed to score goals as Lacazette who should have spearheaded the attack, was often not in the middle to meet crosses.
Hector Bellerin was also pretty good defensively as he handled Grealish, who was essential for the Villa’s attack, pretty well and with the help of Saka, he didn’t give the Villains a chance to score from the right flank, but his crossing was much disappointing and lacked ideas and options.
One of the positives for this game has to be Mathew Ryan, who replaced Brend Leno for the match. Yes, he conceded a goal just inside 2 minutes but it wasn’t his fault as the ball which was going to the goal was deflected by Holding which took the ball out of Ryan’s reach. Other than that, it was an outstanding performance by him as he stood tall and showed bravery against a pretty solid Aston Villa attack and made some very important saves, he also was very good at handling the crosses and his distribution of the ball was also pretty good and because of him, the score remained 1-0.
Martin Odegaard came on at the 65th minute and passed the ball well, having shown some neat touches on the ball and maintained the speed of the Gunners attack as he provided the much-needed energy which is some good sign for Mikel Arteta but couldn’t shoot in front of the goal which is a letdown. Arsenal desperately needs their Talisman, Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang to be in his best as he replaced Lacazette on the 59th minute but was shut down by the resilient Aston Villa defenders.
Arsenal has a week to rectify their mistakes as their next match will be at their home that is, on this coming Sunday against a formidable Leeds United, who is coached by Marcelo Bielsa. And if they want to start winning their games then, they have come up with a plan to score goals and also should find a solution for their Defensive errors, or else they will slip more-and-more into the latter half of the table.
