Gunners maintain perfect start to the season against patchy Villa

Arsenal 2 Aston Villa 1 
Premier League 
Wednesday 31st August 2022 7.30pm   

The first five fixtures of Arsenal’s Premier League campaign, on paper, offered the opportunity to make a strong start to the season, and Mikel Arteta’s team delivered, in spite of a couple of key injuries weakening the side. Thomas Partey’s absence was covered by Mohamed Elneny against Fulham, who in turn was injured, so Sambi Lokonga stepped up last night to face Villa, as the formation remained the same, Granit Xhaka advancing as he has been doing in the four previous matches.

Against a struggling Villa side, with some big names left on the bench by Steve Gerrard, Lokonga did ok. One imagines that for Old Trafford on Sunday, the manager’s conviction will see no change in policy, although if he does decide to go with a more defensive approach, presumably Xhaka will simply play with greater caution and the starting eleven will remain the same. It will certainly be the stiffest test so far this season, with United having started to win matches again. They do however, have a day’s less rest, which favours Arsenal. This because BT – who are showing all of this week’s midweek matches – have saved United for Thursday evening’s spotlight. And that was presumably the reason for the earlier than normal 7.30pm kick off last night. I’d expected to see a lot of late entrants in the stands, but it seemed most people managed to take their seats before the game got under way. The stadium – as it has been for the other two home matches so far this season, was pretty full. People are using their seats more these days, with the buzz around the team and some winning football to watch.

Arsenal dominated proceedings, having many more chances than a Villa side who struggled to maintain possession for any period of time, and in truth, the game could easily have been wrapped up by half time. Saka missed the best chance with the goal gaping, Emi Martinez pulled off some decent saves in the Villa goal, not least an excellent tip over from a Martinelli shot. However, he made a hash of one save from a Xhaka effort, and the ball fell comfortably for Jesus to convert and put his side ahead after 30 minutes. 

It was all very comfortable, although of course, the danger with one nil leads is that one mistake can cost heavily. So it was when Villa won a corner after 72 minutes, and Gerrard brought on Coutinho and Douglas Luiz before it was taken. The latter took it, and Aaron Ramsdale was prevented from getting his hands to the effort by Kamara blocking his movement. So much for protection of goalkeepers. The ball sailed straight into his goal without hindrance. I am not sure what the keeper was supposed to do. I recall Jens Lehmann dealing with this kind of tactic by Robbie Keane when Arsenal won the league with a draw at the Lane in the Invincibles season, and the ref gave a penalty to Spurs for Lehmann’s determination to ensure he could move towards the ball. It was an appalling decision, but as the goal was allowed, the Gunners should start using it themselves to highlight the absurdity of the decision. Seeing it later on TV (there was no replay on the stadium screens), I was amazed VAR did not overturn it. If this is to be allowed going forward, Arsenal’s set piece coach needs to get a body in front of the player blocking the keeper, to avoid a similar goal.

The home side kept their composure though. Tomiyasu had replaced Ben White earlier at right back, and played a key part in the goal that re-established Arsenal’s lead. Two Brazilians had scored up to this point, and Martinelli joined the party after a nice piece of combination work from Tomiyasu and Saka led to a sweet finish that was too powerful for Martinez to stop. Natural order had been restored, and Gerrard threw on Danny Ings to try and salvage a point, with no joy. 

Arteta made three further subs, and although Eddie Nketiah did not have long on the pitch, he made an impression and might have scored himself with a little more control. The buzz of energy and movement he provides from the bench might have paid more dividends had he been put on earlier, but Arteta is generally going to be reluctant to take Jesus off, so it feels like Eddie will only see more game time in the Premier League if Arsenal are seeking a goal, and the manager decides to put on an extra forward. He’ll definitely get starts in the cups though. Martin Odegaard played for a while with a knock of some sort before his decreasing mobility meant he had to be switched. Emile Smith Rowe will presumably come in on Sunday if he does not recover. 

Villa look like they might flirt with relegation this season, with three points from 15. Steven Gerrard will likely be given a month to get them climbing the table, but things really don’t look that promising for him. He’s failing to get a tune out of his players, and you feel the writing is on the wall. All the same, what should have been an easy home win became a little more complicated than you would have predicted, yet the main thing is that the side produced at the key moment in the aftermath of the equalizer. This is encouraging, although the acid test will be how they react to their first defeat. They can’t take three matches to get their mojo back – and the ability (or not) to overcome that flaw from last season will tell us plenty about whether anything has changed over the summer.

Overall, it was a good performance, one that simply wasn’t reflected by a bigger margin of victory, but points are points, and you simply cannot find fault with 15 from the first five matches. It’s wonderful stuff, the football is entertaining and the spirit feels good. Defensively there are less errors, and the addition of the two signings from Manchester City and the long awaited introduction of Saliba have moved things up a notch. The concern is the defensive central midfield question, with the reality that Thomas Partey is going to miss a number of games injured, because I don’t see that changing any time soon. Edu has the rest of today to resolve that gap in the squad, so let’s hope for some news later…

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