It’s probably time to start considering Aston Villa as serious contenders for the Premier League crown, if you haven’t already. However, Arsenal ought to have prevailed.
1) Overpowering the champs and emerging victorious against a squad that many believe deserves the title. Aston Villa’s four-day victory against Manchester City and Arsenal could only make more of an impression if it was accompanied by a menacing image of a corner flag waving in the wind.
Yes, they are contenders. After a spectacular performance in midweek, Villa was granted permission to listen in on normally private conversations. With a different triumph, though, that nevertheless highlighted even more of their extensive talents, Villa found itself the topic of those championship talks. There can be no title talk in the middle of December that doesn’t include them being taken very seriously.
2) Unai Emery was forced to start with the same lineup that destroyed Manchester City. It would take a lot of players—many of whom have already had to contend with adding the Europa Conference to their schedule—to make the turnaround feasible.
However, at this point in the season, rhythm is so important, and the way that the game plan was executed, it had to be preserved as much as possible.
The substitutions would be crucial. To give Villa the best chance of defending their early advantage, Emery made the most of these, making use of all three of these openings as well as the ability to make changes at halftime. With some brilliant and proactive moves, Emery again changed the momentum when the hosts began to falter and Arsenal gained momentum, completely solidifying his plan. It must have been especially delicious for the Spanish genius to orchestrate a wastershed victory against this opponent and under these conditions.
3) Arsenal is disappointed since they should have won the game, or at least not lost it. After a confused and uneasy start, they shown bravery and tenacity to battle their way back into it, especially when Villa came out swinging in front of a passionate home crowd. In the rare instances that the Gunners managed to avoid the infamous offside trap, they nevertheless found themselves ensnared.
Great high presses made great promises about turnovers, but concepts and execution fell short in equal measure. Arsenal dominated the game and the opposition for twenty minutes prior to halftime and for almost thirty minutes following the interval, but they were unable to capitalise.And it never appeared probable that another of those late charge that they have been accustomed to would come off; from the 72nd minute on, their sole attempt was an extremely poor header by Eddie Nketiah that was still offside.
Overall, Arsenal was arguably the better team, but it doesn’t really matter when the other team takes the risk that you don’t.
4) That’s basically what the situation boiled down to. John McGinn’s deft touch and spin in the box completed the magnificent team move Villa created down Arsenal’s right, bringing in Ezri Konsa, Leon Bailey, Boubacar Kamara, and Youri Tielemans. A half hour later, Gabriel Martinelli, Kai Havertz, and Gabriel Jesus linked up brilliantly, but Emi Martinez made a great save to deny Martin Odegaard’s penalty kick after a few set moves.
On the hour mark, Odegaard was presented with another opportunity from a Havertz cutback, but he turned it down. After a late, careless run into the area, the Arsenal captain made the first-ever penalty finish, but his error in those seconds summed up a largely disorganised Gunners performance.
5) The ideal moment was captured just after the half. Lucas Digne had fouled Bukayo Saka on the outskirts of the area; the Frenchman was booked for his blatant inability to contain the winger wide on the right side. Arsenal may have imagined a variety of attacks from that hazardous location, either premeditated or spontaneous.
They produced something ridiculous. Saka gave the free kick short to Odegaard, but Moussa Diaby, one of two Villa players guarding the Arsenal captain, snuck in to intercept it and clear the five yards before the ball could reach the Norwegian. Whatever the Gunners were attempting to accomplish was continually undermined by their widespread and unrelenting carelessness with the ball.
6) To be honest, it was absurd how many passes were hit out of play. Saka worked hard to get a throw-in with Jesus somewhere in the hazy neighbourhood. At one point, Rice was involved as well. William Saliba had the ball under no pressure at the conclusion of the first half, but Ollie Watkins intervened too soon. The center-half was startled, and he hurriedly passed the ball back to David Raya without checking the position of his goalie. He should have hit it for a corner instead.
The fight between Watkins and Saliba was intense. Even if the former has never appeared so uneasy, it was a close race in which both had their periods of dominance.
7) Everything about the match, including the scoreline intricacies, the opponent’s physicality, the disjointed play, the challenging environment, and, regrettably, the inclusion of additional contentious VAR talk, was identical to the Newcastle match.
The Douglas Luiz ‘kick’ on Gabriel Jesus fits easily into the We Just Want Consistency cupboard under You’ve Seen Them Given. The “elbow” that Diego Carlos used on Eddie Nketiah made a much better case for the prosecution—one that was nevertheless disregarded. And with five sets of limbs flailing in close proximity, the late disallowed goal created such an odd circumstance that the outcome could have gone either way.
It went against Arsenal because they are Arsenal. Thus, the corruption-related issues persist unabatedly.
8) The imposing Carlos was named man of the match, which was almost definitely a unanimous vote. The Brazilian, making just his ninth Premier League appearance of the season, had five tackles and two goalline clearances.
He has shown incredible resilience in playing such a challenging role at a high level, especially considering the Achilles ailment that derailed his rookie season and the hamstring issue that cut short his initial stint in the team in September. Villa has been so good that it is easy to forget that Mings and Konsa had a strong central-defensive connection when the team first began play. The chic and unyielding Torres-Carlos duo is not one to be moved.
9) They were the lieutenants tasked with leading Arsenal’s high line, which had them stumped for at least thirty minutes.
Villa may have an easy target on their back, but it doesn’t make it any less easy to take advantage of. During a moment in the first half when William Saliba was carrying the ball towards the midway line, every outfield player on each side was inside the same 30-yard zone in the middle of the pitch. Jesus was holding his run with his toes as though he was waiting for someone to knock in a free kick from wide. It was an odd picture that perfectly captured Arsenal’s attempts to break through.
Gabriel found a solution to the dilemma by making some exquisite passes over the top, first to Martinelli for one of Carlos’s clearances and then to Jesus, who forced Martinez into an easy save. Konsa and the area behind him became the target of both strikes, which were directed to the left.
These two chances, together with the Odegaard opportunity that Martinez turned away, gave Arsenal hope that a breakthrough was close at hand. The timing of halftime was inconvenient.
10) The constant but dormant Villa danger was a contributing factor in Arsenal’s issues. Because the hosts would always be one pass away from finding an opportunity, they could not commit too many players forward, take too many chances when in control, or momentarily lose focus. At the conclusion of the first half, Tielemans slid Watkins in behind to force a great stop from Raya. It felt like a caution not to get carried away by the game’s momentum.
11) However, Arsenal maintained that momentum at the beginning of the second half, with Oleksandr Zinchenko standing out for his improved play. Most Villa counter-presses were directed towards the Ukrainian, who they knew could be dislodged with the appropriate lure. In the goal, Zinchenko attempted to cut Bailey off by racing out to the halfway line, which created space at left-back that the forward was able to take full advantage of. Zinchenko was booked in a similar incident when he pulled Tielemans back to halt a counter after the Belgian had turned him.
Zinchenko performed much better when positioned more centrally, twice finding Martinelli in the back, while Odegaard nearly found a Jesus run off the final defender’s shoulder. Saka missed the mark by a hair as he put Rice’s excellent ball over the top. Villa’s legs were beginning to show signs of fatigue as Arsenal was passing the ball with greater speed and deliberateness. There was going to be an equaliser.
12) That’s when Emery had his reaction. Bailey was obliged to make his first substitution, and Diaby dutifully replicated that counter threat for the duration of the second half. Rice was joined by Jacob Ramsey, who skillfully challenged him for the title of Best No. 41 On The Pitch. Matty Cash gave Konsa the energy he sorely lacked, with the more conventional right-back once foiling a potentially disastrous break. Late on, Alex Moreno took similar action to prevent Jesus. Furthermore, Leander Dendoncker proved to be an incredibly potent destroyer when Villa most needed him.
Their moment with Arsenal was gone before they realised it. Villa owns it, always has.
13) In fact, Mikel Arteta’s initial substitute of three assisted in turning the tide. Leandro Trossard is an extremely talented and clever football player, so it made perfect sense to bring him on while looking for other methods to go past a defender. But even in retrospect, leaving Martinelli felt like a mistake.
The Brazilian wasn’t just playing well, he wasn’t playing well at all. His final output was incredibly subpar. However, he was outpacing everyone else in getting behind the defenders, and it’s hard not to believe that the sheer volume of opportunities he was creating would have finally paid off. Without him, Arsenal posed significantly fewer questions than they did previously.
Perhaps Jesus was the one who needed to adapt. Saka’s delivery from the right allowed the Brazilian to find himself unmarked in the heart of the pitch only one minute before Trossard entered the game. But Villa shored up, a dastardly touch killing the move dead.
14) That might be an inaccurate representation of how they handled the last thirty minutes, as low blocks were not the plan and there was no sitting deep. Up until the eighth minute of stoppage time, when an offside Nketiah scuffed his header horribly wide, Villa persevered in their convictions.
These days, it’s rather hard to find many people criticising their strong defensive line. To be fair, it was laughably used at Newcastle and Liverpool, and not much better at Nottingham Forest, but now that it has been perfected, its usefulness cannot be questioned.
15) Which of Parks Villa and Hampden will be the first to install a statue of McGinn utilising his enormous rear to hold off opponents and retain possession when Villa does win the Premier League and Scotland are declared champions at Euro 2024?
That was the aspect of his game that seemed to provide him greater joy than scoring. No player completed more tackles, and McGinn successfully completed all three of Villa’s dribbles, frequently evading the kind of situations that Arsenal typically exploits.
Any one of the five players who have started each of those incredible 15 straight home Premier League victories can be regarded as the team’s key player. But no one does their potent combination of technical magnificence and tirelessness better than McGinn. It’s also hilarious that this title-threatening team is led by Steve Bruce, a £2 million addition from Hibs.
16) Steven Gerrard appears to be becoming a poorer manager every week, and this is due to more than just Al-Ettifaq’s mid-table position in Saudi Arabia.
