Kevin Whitcher's Arsenal Blog

  Arsenal 0 Aston Villa 2    Premier League    Sunday 14th April 2024  4.30 pm     Ah well, the afternoon was going so well. Liverpool’s shock defeat at home to Palace opened the way for Arsenal to open a gap on one of their two rivals for the title. It ended with Manchester City benefitting the most on a day when all they had to do was sit in front of the TV and enjoy what transpired.   Villa have now done the double over Arsenal in the league this season, although their home win was less deserving  and featured some far more controversial decisions from the referee. Yesterday, it was a fairly even game – the Gunners were on top in the first half, Villa had the better of things after the break.   Ultimately, it was a case of the home side not making the most of their early dominance. There were a good number of chances to score before Villa were allowed back into the game, the most clearcut being Trossard’s...

Aston Villa 1 Arsenal 0    Premier League Saturday 9th December 2023 5.30pm   I’ll do this blog longform for a change. A bit of perspective is required here, and sometimes, in football, it just isn’t your day. Arsenal didn’t play badly against Aston Villa, and were ultimately done by some marginal decisions, which can be debated, and poor finishing when opportunities arose.    It was a meeting of two Arsenal managers, as Mikel Arteta faced his predecessor once again. Emery established his greater experience of managing matches in the Europa League semi-final between Arsenal and Villarreal in 2021, and to an extent, he also did that yesterday. The organisation of Villa – specifically an offside line as good an anything George Graham ever produced – made a significant contribution to their win. One was left with the feeling that, but for egos, he might have had a longer run at Arsenal and achieved more. He did have a flying start before the team seemed to sto...

Aston Villa 2 Arsenal 4    Premier League    Saturday 18th February 2023 12.30pm    Things needed shaking up a bit after the last three matches and Mikel Arteta brought Leandro Trossard into Arsenal’s starting eleven in place of Martinelli, and Ben White reclaimed his position at right back after Tomiyasu’s below par display against Manchester City. Unfortunately, the changes did not have a positive effect in the first half as Villa outscored their opponents by two goals to one.   Unai Emery’s side took the lead after five minutes when Zinchenko lost possession trying to go past his man and then failed to take a card and stop the break that developed. Arsenal were caught cold on the counter attack as Saliba failed to deal with Olly Watkins, who was able to slot the ball past Ramsdale without too much resistance. It was an avoidable goal, a little too easy. The Gunners regrouped and their pressure in Villa’s half created an equaliser as Mings’ poor head...

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 f...

Aston Villa 0 Arsenal 1   Premier League   Saturday 19th March 2022 12.30pm     Arsenal’s record at Villa Park has been woeful since the Midlands club’s return to the top flight in the summer of 2019, with two defeats, both under Mikel Arteta’s watch. The Gunners were nowhere near Champions League qualification in either of those seasons, but yesterday lunchtime’s kick off had far more at stake for the visiting team, because it was important to re-establish momentum and boost their chances of a top four place after the midweek defeat to Liverpool. It was easy to see that gulf in quality between Arsenal’s opponents. Villa may have Liverpool connections in the form of Gerrard and McAllister issuing instructions, and Coutinho and even Danny Ings on the playing staff, but it was chalk and cheese in terms of the levels of performance required to win the game. It almost felt like there are three levels in the top half of the Premier League now – title contenders, 4 th pla...

  Arsenal 3 Aston Villa 1     Premier League     Friday 22nd October 2021   8pm    So what was the difference from Monday evening’s poor display at home to Palace? In short, greater balance in midfield and the playing of Alex Lacazette from the off, whose play asked more questions of the opposition than we saw during the time he was on the sidelines four evenings earlier. Additionally, Nuno Tavares had a positive impact, Kieran Tierney having seen his form decline recently, almost certainly down to playing on with the injured ankle that has now been declared by the club.   The greater balance – and Arteta has to now field two deeper central defenders after the attempts to play Partey there on his own quite obviously failed – allowed the likes of Emile Smith Rowe to contribute more. There is a feeling that the latter and Odegaard cannot play in the same eleven. I’m not so sure about that, but what does not work is playing that pair to form a m...

Aston Villa 1 Arsenal 0 Premier League Saturday 6th February 2021 12.30pm The game at Villa Park was settled within the first two minutes due to Cedric’s casual lay-off pass to Gabriel, who did not anticipate having to run onto the ball and saw it taken away from him by Traore, who found Olly Watkins in the centre. His deflected shot off Rob Holding beat debutant keeper Mathew Ryan, who tried to stop it but was blameless. That turned out to be game over. After a pretty decent run since Christmas, recent matches have seen Arsenal gift goals to the opposition, and have their numbers on the pitch reduced, due to some poor decision-making.   Perhaps at this stage, an overview is required. This from a mate of mine, Tel, this morning: “15 games to go and we have already lost 10 games... we only lost 10 games all of last season... we are scoring just over a goal a game this season, last season it was 1.5 a game... we're losing a game every 2.3 games, on that basis we are going to lose ano...

Arsenal 0 Aston Villa 3 Premier League Sunday 8th  November 2020  7.15p m Unlike the narrow defeats to Liverpool, Manchester City and Leicester, yesterday evening’s trouncing at home to Villa was a horrorshow. I’d say it couldn’t have been much worse, but the honest truth is that Dean Smith’s team could have won by more. They came to the Emirates without fear, played with purpose, aggression and intelligence, and exposed a very below par Arsenal eleven. Mikel Arteta stuck with the same eleven that started at Old Trafford and that seemed the right decision. However the performances in the two games were like chalk and cheese.   Arsenal had a very early warning with a disallowed McGinn goal for offside, which at least evened out feelings about the Lacazette header against Leicester that was chalked off for Xhaka’s supposed interference with the keeper. They were fortunate though – as with Casper Schmeichel two weekends ago, Leno would not have stopped the rocket of an effor...