Have Arsenal already proved they’re better than last season?
On Saturday at Villa Park against tough opposition Arsenal held on for dear life for two thirds of the match before rolling out the cannons against Aston Villa.
The Villains who ended up reaching more shots in total (11) than The Gunners certainly had the upper hand over us for the most of the match and were unlucky not to score.
To start off with Ollie Watkins missed from the centre of the box after David Raya had already dived the wrong way. As Sky Sports commentator and pundit Gary Neville said “it was almost an open goal” for him.
Next up Amadou Onana whacked the woodwork before the ball dropped to Watkin’s again, who was just a matter of yards away from goal who forced Raya into a “world class save” to deny The Villains again.
However despite Mikel Arteta’s side being arguably on the back foot, Arsenal mustered up the strength and courage to turn the game on its head. After 67 minutes Leandro Trossard fired in the opener from close range to hand Arsenal the lead.
Within ten minutes Thomas Partey struck the bottom left of former Arsenal goalie Emiliano Martinez goal from outside the box. It was clear now that The North Londoner’s were certain for a 2-0 victory which was achieved.
In previous seasons though Arsenal would’ve slipped into a 0-2 oblivion, perhaps worse, but it was clear on Saturday that our boys had found something extra inside of them when they were under pressure and likely to fall prey to Unai Emery’s Aston Villa.
It was the first time in nearly two years that we had scored against Aston Villa since we beat them 4-2 in the Premier League at the same venue in February 2023. Last season Villa were our bogey team who stopped us from winning the title eventually, after defeating us 1-0 in Birmingham and 2-0 at The Emirates in a must win game for Arsenal.
We couldn’t have looked anymore different to the side which faced Villa in the last campaign and perhaps we are on the way to something greater (the Premier League title already!).
Liam Harding
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No. as of now its just 1 win. question is can they do if for entire season. Also villa missed some easy chances.
yes to my analysis they’re much more stronger 💪 and more organized than last season
How did they have the upper hand over us? They sat deep and timed when to hit us on the break, which they did well as a good team, and their chances did not come because they cut us open. Only on two occasions did they create clear cut chances, first from Gabriel’s forced mistake because of their well timed press, and then the chance from the deflection. Other than those we were in control of the game hence the possession stats.
@Solwills
Not true. They neutralised our midfield in the first half, man marking them making it virtually impossible to get off passes or advance the ball. Then Roger’s ran through us at will. When they made changes to their midfield players in the second half were we able to get back control of midfield. Check the highlights.
Rogers ran through at will, when? Just two occasions which ultimately lead to nothing, what about the times Martinelli did the same from the wings? If Rogers was our player we would have criticized his runs which lead to nothing other than the simple pass he gave to Watkins from Gabriel’s mistakes he had no end product. Kia even made a good run from the the left in the first half only to square to nobody, if that was the opposing team we would question why he was afforded such space and how lucky we were that Kia squared a rubbish pass. This is football and I know we criticize our team more but to say they had the upper hand is not true. Most neutral pundits including the once at Sky Sports said Villa played well and other than the two chances they had Arsenal played the better football and control the game.
I’ve seen the game twice, do not need to check highlights.
@Soliwills
Then you missed a lot.
Now, what about the chances we created in the first half? Saka’s shot that forced a brilliant save from Martinez, we created that. Martinelli’s cut back to Kia which he could not direct on target both good goal scoring chances in the first half.
Getting a bit overexcited with the two wins here, neither of which were perfect. It’s far too early to make comparisons, but if we get seven points at least from the next three games I’d say yes.
NO it doesn’t
Aston Villa did not beat us upper year
But beat us last year
Someone who did not beat us last year will beat us this year
It’s not an improvement that we beat Aston Villa as we beat them upper year also