Not always pretty, but winning is winning! Arsenal maintained their perfect start to the season with a 1-0 win over Aston Villa through a well worked Bukayo Saka goal, but aside from the goal not coming from a corner, this game had a very familiar feeling, and I don’t mean that in a bad way!
On reflection, this was one of those games that felt very nervy while watching, but was actually quite comfortable, which is something we’ve grown accustomed to over the years. A one goal lead is never comfortable, as a slight error or moment of brilliance can undo a lot of good work, but when you look back at the match stats and realise that Aston Villa never had a single shot on target, you see how much of a professional job it was.
The lineup
The lineup pretty much picks itself right now, as we are only playing once a week and the need to rotate not quite there yet, so there were few surprises in Arteta’s selection. One change was Bruno Guimaraes was now fit to return to the bench, which was a real positive.
The game
It was a cagey affair for the most part, with very few chances. The first half came and went with very few chances, aside for Emi Buendia hitting the crossbar for Villa when I honestly believe he thought a free kick had been given (as it probably should have done!).
Into the second half and we seemed to step it up a gear. Not massively, but there was a definitive change in our approach and we seemed to carry more threat in behind. We had a penalty correctly overruled for the foul being outside the box, which was disappointing but we didn’t let it keep us down for long, as shortly after, we took the lead.
The goal was very unlike the Arsenal of last season, whereas the overall performance was very much like Arsenal of last season, so there was a real contrast on show here! The move started with Cristhian Mosquera about 10-15 yards outside the Villa box on the left side as he waited patiently before punching a lovely ball through the lines to Eberechi Eze, who quickly pushed the ball forward into the path of the onrushing Riccardo Calafiori, who just got there in time to slide the ball across the box for Saka to battle his way to the ball and poke the ball over the line. It was a really well worked goal, with a starring role from the increasingly influential Calafiori at the heart of it.
We never really pushed for the second goal, which is probably the big regret of the night, as the EIGHT minutes of stoppage time were pretty torturous, but in the end, it mattered little as we came away with a massive three points.
Who stood out
There was a few performances that really stood out from the starting eleven, with the aforementioned Calafiori deservedly receiving the SkySports Player of the Match award among them, but it was the substitutes that really caught the eye, which shows the level of this squad these days. Not many teams can change their whole midfield and seemingly go up a level, but that’s exactly what Arsenal did.
Through different substitution windows, Mikel Arteta introduced Martin Zubimendi, Bruno Guimaraes and Mikel Merino and the latter two (who admittedly played quite a bit more than Zubimendi) were really impressive. Merino so neat and tidy on the ball. Keeping it effortlessly under real pressure and then finding teammates at will while winning fouls at key moments to slow the game down well. A brilliant sub to bring on and that’s before we get to Guimaraes who looked really exciting during his cameo. Did some great work in defence and played several incisive passes forward to get us into some excellent attacking positions, that we probably should have done better with. Probably should have won us a penalty at the end as well!
Any concerns?
Christos Tzolis struggled up against Matty Cash, which was the one real downside of the match, but I think far too much has been made of this in the media and online. Cash is a seasoned pro and did a bit of a job on him, but he’ll do that against a lot of wingers this year. Tzolis’ withdrawal at half time was largely due to his ridiculous first half booking anyway, so there’s nothing to say Tzolis wouldn’t have gone out in the second half and turned his performance around, so there’s no real panic here.
Summary
So in summary, Arsenal fought for and won a massive three points at one of the toughest away grounds in the Premier League (the last three title winners had all lost their when defending their title) and barely got out of second gear. Things to work on, but lots to be proud of and we keep moving. A London derby against Chelsea up next.