An early goal from John McGinn was enough to give Aston Villa a 1-0 win at Villa Park this evening.
It was a frustrating night for Arsenal who had two goals disallowed, a stonewall penalty denied, and a red card for Villa ignored, but it’s also fair to say we didn’t make the most of the possession and the chances we made.
Here’s how the players rated this evening.
Read the Aston Villa 1-0 Arsenal match report and see the goals here
Aston Villa 1-0 Arsenal – Player Ratings
The ratings are hidden by default until you vote, but if you just want to view the ratings and the comments, flick the switch at the top above David Raya. Also, please give the ratings a few seconds to load.
Have to say this is no longer incompetence from PGMOL but a clear plan to target Arsenal and make critical decisions go against us. But f*ck em, we go again.
Besides obviously thinking f*ck them, what else can we possibly (legally) do?
It’s beyond ridiculous and blatantly intentional now.
Unless there’s an independent regulator, there’s literally nothing Arsenal Football Club can do against the tyrants at the FA and PGMOL so yeah
There is one thing that Arsenal could do to the FA and the PGMOL… But fans really wouldn’t like it. That’s leave the league and create your own league. The super league idea was terrible, but now looking back, if the league was just teams that got lots of money and those teams still got to play UCL ball and could ignore the FA and PGMOL… Maybe it’s worth it after all. Threatening to leave the league might be enough, but if they call the bluff, just leave. Arsenal make the league a lot of revenue, all of those views… Read more »
I’m really bored with the constant PGMOL whining…it’s a sign of not being good enough. Deal with it people.
Agreed – if we had a 15-20 goal striker and something resembling a left-back, we would NOT even be having this conversation.
You do know that is going to happen? We should be thankful kse spent enough money to get Arsenal on the list
100%.Its inevitable. The greed will make it happen.
Sadly yes, with all the games attended by tourist fans
That just open another can of worms, wouldn’t it..
You know that the Premier League is a breakaway league right?
We can legally FK them if they legally agree to us fking them. I honestly believe these VAR bastards are a bunch of sp*rs fans. The way they beat Liverpool and every week decisions going against us. When was the last time sp*rs complained about VAR?
Unhappy to lose but a tiny part of me is happy for Emery and Emi to be having success. It’s going to be a fun title race and a great rest of the season.
Why? You a Villa fan?
I do felt Emery was not given enough time, but that’s all in the past.
Emi???!!! All respect was lost after his post World Cup antics
If you are happy for that Martinez twat, you’re not really a Gunner. That big twat can duck right off
I heard that. I mean the ‘tiny’ part….. Emery is a classy man but Martinez should never be allowed to enter a scout-hall unchallenged
we will succeed against them all!
coyg 🤬
I thought Gabriel was a bit sluggish at times.
Towards the last half hour, Gabriel and Jesus both seemed incredibly tired and couldn’t keep a ball. Jesus should’ve been subbed some 15 minutes earlier and I would’ve brought on Kiwior for Gabriel who had run out of steam for the last quarter hour or so. Zinchenko slowing down play every time we needed to get through their midfield quickly got me angry.
Zinchenko positioning puts Gabriel under a lot of pressure, and he is not exactly a fast defender like saliba. Important games against the top 5 teams, Arteta should use other wing back instead of Zinchenko. Not saying Zinchenko is bad, just less defensive capability.
Didn’t have the options. Tomi and Timber both out injured
Kiwoir?
Another option is to just play Zinny in that left 8 position and add a proper left back say Kiwior into the mix. We may loose a bit of height but we can as in Havert and Trousard dropping out but we get our extra man in midfield and still get defensive solidity. And given how effective our current crop of defenders are playing the ball out we won’t have lost too much bite. Just thinking.
Arsenal have conceded FIVE goals from the last six shots on target… there is a problem and I suspect it’s rooted in Zinchenko and Raya.
Not sure I’d call Kiwior a proper left back. I mean yes, he’s played there for Arsenal and Poland a few times but he’s really a centre back by trade. At Spezia in Italy, he was often deployed as a defensive midfielder.
If Tomi was available I think he would’ve strted.
His attacking play aside, Zinch is a shocking defender. He is just NOT a LB.
It’s what happens when you’ve had to cover CB and LB for 70 minutes! Zinch’s positioning is now beyond a joke… it’s putting huge pressure on Big Gabi to constantly second guess where he’s gonna wander off to next.
How many more points is he going to directly cost us before Arteta gives up on this inverted obsession which does nothing except open our entire left flank like Xaviera Hollander’s legs.
Inverted tactics is fine, but the players must quickly return to their position like Tomiyasu. Unfortunately we cannot expect that from Zinchenko, and Gabriel who is covering him is physical, but not fast enough as well.
Fuck Gillet, wish he had no arms.
I have never felt so disillusioned with the state of refereeing. I hate talking about it, I hate listening to people talking about it. But what can be done to fix it? I’m really starting to think it’s genuinely corrupt. Even taking away VAR won’t fix it as that won’t solve the corruption. No way we win the premier league with that farce going on. It will cost us at least 10 points this season. We’re not 10 points better than City or Liverpool. They are making an already difficult task for us practically impossible. FUCK the PGMOL and FUCK… Read more »
I am in no doubt that VAR and refereeing decisions are ruining the game. The Villa second yellow today is a case in point.
Sorry I meant Palace second yellow.
The officiating was shit, however, we had more than enough chances to win this game. An off day for Jesus and Odegaard. We won’t win every game, and neither will Liverpool. We March on.
We win this game if we can finish properly. But we don’t lose this game if the Ref does his job correctly. It’s like being docked a point for no reason. As bad as we were we definitely deserved something Villa were piss.
Villa were brilliantly organised, had a game plan and defended well when they had to.
The club (Edu and predecessors) should have been building relationships with the PGMOL from a long time ago, pushing them to diversify their recruiting/promotions outside the North and midlands, and making clear that the club has red lines (Saka’s health for example). It’s always been a political game, play it.
Not sure about the conspiracy theories but the ways the rules are applied by refs, and talked about by TV pundits makes me sick. They are so intellectually limited and stuck in illogical pattens of thinking. Some things never get given (eg dangerously violent knees is the back, follow thru after a shot) other things are always given however trivial. Needs a good shake up.
Thought we missed the manager on the sidelines. The final ball was shocking all night.
Agree, and I’ve never seen our players shouting at each other so much
I don’t think there was an agenda against Arsenal before the Newcastle game, just bad refereeing. It feels very different since the Arteta comments, there’s a clear agenda against us now supported by the media. I still think we’ll win the league though, we didn’t play badly.
Perhaps he shouldn’t have had the rant!?
It wasn’t a rant, and you can’t keep swallowing all the bad decisions that go against him. The fact that Arsenal are now clearly being punished proves his point.
It’s like a city in the USA where a cop beats someone who didn’t deserve to be beaten up. (Newcastle vs Arsenal) And then a bystander sees what is happening and records it. (Arteta after Newcastle game) And then the police start harassing the bystander for putting his nose in business that wasn’t his. Police chief starts backing his cops and says these people are criminals. (Howard Webb, my refs are good, you’re bad, I’m going to have the FA fine and ban you cause hahaha I can) At which point the police start getting into more trouble by more… Read more »
It’s just a game.No-one died, Grow up.
It’s a free world. You say it as it is.
Like hell it is!
We had enough chances to win that. We have to take them as we will get nothing from the refs. The non goal at the end was a joke
It hurts, but we are still laughing…
A bit frustrated because the bal seemed to touch the defender’s arm as well as Havertz. Not the end of the world though, especially if we beat them at the Emirates
When not if ! The rest ? I totally agree !
100% The ball clearly hits both Cash’s arm AND then his hand before it hits Kai’s arm. Simple logic dictates therefor that – if Kai’s is adjudged a handball – then either of Cash’s must also be handball, surely? And since both those came before Kai’s – at worst, it’s a penalty to Arsenal.
Can we use siege mentality in our favour?
Think we’re gonna have too mate.
The only 2 games we lost this season, we had a valid goal go against us.
Arteta talks about creating an environment where the team challenges itself and competition for places. The reason why the Raya/Ramsdale situation gets talked about so much is because that be environment really doesn’t exist at the moment. Other than tomiyasu and partey where are the genuine challenges for first team places? The wingers and strikers were poor today… And I can understand they were knackered after this week, but there are no decent replacements. Equally I understand careful what you wish for as you can’t keep everyone happy, but we need to see more from the rest of the team.… Read more »
If we are to win the title this year (and it is certainly there to be won) we need an upgrade on Jesus, Ivan Toney in January or even Solanke. I am also beginning to lose a bit of faith in Martinelli, he is blessed with blistering pace and is a good finisher, but his goal contributions are minimal. We might have had penalties in our last 3 games. Wolves was about a 70% shout, but the one against Luton (Gabriel being pulled by the arm) and today’s one were cast iron. I do wonder whether PGMOL are against us,… Read more »
Never loose faith in martineli. I would go as far as to say we are very lucky to have someone as good as gabi on our books. The man’s an absolute class act. Sorry to be rude but you are very very mistaken.
You are not rude, and Gabby has everything in his locker to be a top player, except a football brain. I love Martinelli, but I really want to win the league and his contribution this season has been minimal. I am not going to look up his stats but I am remembering about 2 goals and assists. Is this an adequate contribution in a (hopefully) championship winning team?
I am far more worried about Ineffectual Eddie being our only striker option and tissue-paper Zinch being our left-back. Sort those two positions and you plug two very damaging leaks at either end of the park!
I agree about Martinelli. His decision making has been disappointing this season. Does not cross the ball soon enough. Slows it and that gives opposition time to regroup. Same with his passing.
What “RESPECT” campaign ? I hate what the premier league has become & the divides of “decision” from refs & VAR within it ! Somehow this has to stop & it needs to be now not next season ! Lastly if I was Kai I’d speak to Zinny & fully explain “hit me early” Bloody hell man we could all see that early pass but Zinny couldn’t ? Not disappointed with the team just the result ! C’mon the Gunners !!!
I will have to watch again, but my impression was that Zinchenko was very good; that almost every serious chance came from his passes. I don’t always agree with Blogs, but I rarely disagree to this extent.
Think we’d have had more serious chances had he hit those runs in behind that square defence ? Gave them time to set & we had to play in front of them because of it
Honestly, I didn’t think he was bad either. If anybody was too slow in playing the ball forward it was Martinelli. The number of times he tried to cut back inside was infuriating. There were so many times he should’ve crossed the ball into the box sooner but chose to kill the ball and turn inside. An off day.
Maybe he was still suffering from that knee in the kidneys against Luton on Wednesday, probably half the team picked up knocks in that game.
His cutting back habit are becoming a regular thing.
Martinelli didn’t get skinned on the half-way line, totally out of position to gift them a goal against the run of play.
Martinelli didn’t constantly stall our transitions by standing on the ball (or passing it backwards).
Martinelli didn’t repeatedly miss very effective runs made by his team-mates.
Martinelli didn’t constantly wander off out of position, leaving his fellow defenders to plug the gap.
If tomi plays. We don’t loose that game PERIOD as our US friends might say.
He wasn’t great defensively and didn’t offer a decent final ball at all.
He was at fault for their goal.
Zinch was shocking: for all his cute, dinked through-balls (many of which came too late, when Villa had already reset the back defensive line, he wasted EIGHT attempt passes either over\under-hit or straight to a Villa player; his positioning is an absolute joke – he wanders around, gets skinned by pace or caught in possession too far up the field, leaving a huge hole down our left; his constant wandering also puts huge pressure on Big Gabi to have to cover the left, resulting in him looking blown after 70 mins; and for all his ‘attacking vision’ – he repeatedly… Read more »
After watching Emery engineer myriad losses at Arsenal against crummy teams, that outcome couldn’t have been more ironic if it has been rolled in O’Henry and dipped in Alanis Morissette.
Pure class. Win or lose, Arsenlog and the comments always make me feel better about things
Class
Just blame ourselves. And for the possible pen, the way Jesus fell wasn’t great to be honest though it could’ve been our way.
I think that’s the reason it wasn’t given, he did almost throw himself to the floor
The players all looked a bit rattled to start with, but it can’t be easy playing against eleven dirty, cheaty fuckers knowing that every decision that’s possible to be against you will be against you. PGMOL and their tame media pets should be investigated and exposed. Mikel is being shown the consequences of telling things as they are and going against the cartel and the agenda. I’ve been saying for years that the league is corrupt, we’ve always had dodgy decisions going against us, but now it seems we’ve stepped on a snake and things are going to be even… Read more »
And yet we’re emotionally bound to the cruel beast 😭
Two penalty appeals which are given every matchday but intentionally denied for us..
This is going to make us hate the premier league…
This is not bragging, but to be honest, the only team I see as strong as Arsenal this season is Man City. even that, we edge it.
I hope we don’t burn out towards the end of the season but I am more than assured now that we will win the league this year.
I’d agree if it was just the other 19 teams we weee against.
Not with Zinchenko at LB and Eddie as our only other striker option, we won’t. Desperately need to sort those 2 positions in January… if (IF) there’s anyone decent on the market.
Some of those 5.5 ratings a bit harsh in my view. I thought we played quite well, it just didn’t quite click against a hot Villa team, and the usual bad calls against us.
FUCK
That should have been a goal for Havertz, if there was any contact with hand it was a graze and his hand seemed to be in a natural position. For me there should have been a penalty when Jesus received a solid blow to the shin well away from the ball.
What the fuck is going on
I haven’t scoured the comments, is anyone talking about the ball hitting the defender’s hand/arm, maybe even more than once?
A graze is still a handball!
Not when the defender has done exactly the same BEFORE you have!
Kai’s ‘glance’ could be ruled as handball, fair enough, But then so must BOTH of Cash’s prior touches… means a penalty to Arsenal. End of…
In fact a very similar foul was called for a penalty by VAR in the Liverpool Crystal Palace game earlier in the day.
Zinchenko is driving me mad
Taking forever on the ball, taking it away from team mates in better positions, taking it off of team mates mid stride when they could have easily continued with it
These are all things that slow down our play and give the opponents more time to settle
And a bunch of inaccurate passes today, plus his standard bad defense.
Completely agree he dithers. Ball had to be hit forward much earlier.
Too many letdowns at key moments by key players unfortunately. Can’t believe we let Martinez go to keep Leno, horrible decision. He is so much more commanding in the box than Raya is and both he and Ramsdale likely would have stopped that shot (though Raya certainly can’t be blamed for that one).
Martinez is a classless cunt.
Leno is pure class as a person. Martinez is missing the cl but has the other 3 letters in spades.
Clever…especially bc Aston Villa not in champions league yet
Never would want him on my side. The commentator said Every one wasts time the way he does it annoys me. The way he goes to ground annoys me. Everything annoys me. Yet he won a World Cup
Only if he is playing for the opposition. We loved his tactics on the FA Cup run.
Leno over Martinez all day long.
In my opinion, if Arteta continues to chose combination of Zinchenko and Havertz on the left side they can expect to steadily drop down the table. Individually they’re both average, together….oof.
Didn’t the havertz goal hit his hand before he kicked it in? If so, I understand why it didn’t stand. I do think, despite what Lee dixon said, that Jesus should have had a pen. Otherwise, our defense was terrific other than the one letoff. However, we moved the ball too slowly and never passed over the top of the high line. Not sure why. It’s fine to take a chance and lose the ball. We take chances playing from the back and lose the ball. Our possession looked sterile, passing backwards from zinchenko to Gabriel is so frustrating. Still.… Read more »
Lee Dixon rarely has anything positive to say about Arsenal, like many ex players. Gabi Jesus should definitely have had a penalty.
My exact sentiment. We didn’t take a couple of chances we had in the game. Also we didn’t move the ball quickly enough to exploit that high line. I didn’t see any significant good ball down either our right of left flank. I also didn’t see any overlapping play on either flanks. Just ponderous possession
‘Our defence was terrific’ – except for the weak link that is Zinch.
‘We moved the ball too slowly’ – because our supposed Left-Back keeps trying to be mid-field play-maker and, more often than not, just gets in the way!
Guy, what now? We clearly can’t win when we have the PGMOL against us. Is there anything out of this? We can’t simply say move on as the nonsense will repeat again in anfield
Not sure how much blame the PGMOL deserves in this particular instance, Jared Gillett has been on a one man mission to screw us over since he got here. The Sokratis goal he chalked off years ago vs Palace still stands as the single worst VAR decision I’ve ever seen (which is obviously a high bar to clear), but he’s singlehandedly cost us points on several occasions since, most notably against City two years ago when he waved off a legit pen for us and gave one for the Bernardo Silva dive. And we’re not the only victims, he disallowed… Read more »
Artetas comments really have fucked us a bit, eh? We’re not gonna get another call all season.
We weren’t anyway.
What is UK’s corruption agency’s hotline?
Watched this game with a villa fan (family commitment) and they even couldn’t believe how on earth they got away with a win today. The officiating is a complete farce and is blatantly corrupt. TBF our boys where not at level we have become accustomed to recently however they play week in and week out against top teams who have the (bias) support of the officials. Enough is enough. We ought to start a campaign against this bull sh*t.
It seems now that Super League might not have been such a bad idea with all these incompetent PGMOL c***s
On the second thought, we need to talk about Martinelli. He has stagnated. His decisioning is slow. Often waits on ball for too long rather than crossing asap.
I think these are a few reasons Arteta was looking for Mudryk. I will not be surprised if Arteta tries for a LW hard the next window.
Often he has to wait because there’s nobody to cross to and he’s being marked by two if not three players. When we take him off we lose a major outlet to get us up the pitch. He, like Gabi Jesus, contributes more than just goals.
Call me stuck in the past, but until the Premier League decides to award wins based on “work rate” or “off the ball movement,” I’ll take another forward or two who are more clinical in their finishing, at least as options off the bench to really change a game. Defenders might fear the Arsenal attack as a whole, but I’m not sure that any fear a specific attacker.
I’ve said it before – so bring on the predictable down-votes but it’s is surely now clearly a reality: Eddie will not WIN us the EPL title. Zinchenko will LOSE us the EPL title. If we are seriously to challenge for the best league in the world, there can be zero half-measures, brain-farts and NO passengers. I have nothing against either player – but they are simply not good enough to win titles, albeit for different reasons: Eddie lacks work-rate, offers nothing on the press (a key part of our style) and just cannot be relied upon to take his… Read more »
Totally agree, Martinelli’s final ball was woeful and Zinchenko killed the momentum.