Thursday, October 3, 2024

Report: Aston Villa 0-2 Arsenal (inc. goals)

Arsenal made it two wins from two in the Premier League as Leandro Trossard came off the bench to inspire a 2-0 victory at Aston Villa. The Belgian broke the deadlock with his first touch and was heavily involved in the build-up to the second as Thomas Partey converted from the edge of the box. 

The outcome might have been very different had David Raya not produced a stunning reaction save to keep out a header by Ollie Watkins who’d already missed a sitter in the first half. 

If the pundits were hoping for a barnstorming end-to-end first half, it was anything but. In the opening stages, Arsenal did everything to take the pace out of the game, perhaps with one eye on dampening the spirits of a raucous home crowd. Gabriel and Saliba exchanged pass after pass, sometimes even putting their foot on the ball while waiting for Villa pressure that didn’t come. 

The tempo was further affected by three stoppages in the opening 25 minutes. Amadou Onana went down early after a collision with Timber, Matty Cash was substituted with a hamstring injury and Leon Bailey seemed to tweak his knee and received treatment before continuing. 

In between, Arsenal patiently probed. The first chance for either side came on seven minutes when Martinelli, with space to run into, burst towards the edge of the box before failing to pick out Odegaard. The ball was recovered by Saka who swung in a cross that Martinez parried to the edge of the box. Rice reacted with a quick-fire shot that the Argentine claimed. 

Martinez was called into action again eight minutes later, this time making a brilliant fingertip stop to deny Saka who’d worked his way onto his favoured left foot before curling a low effort that was destined for the bottom corner. It was a fine stop by the ex-Gunner who fooled referee Michael Oliver into awarding a free-kick when he theatrically tumbled over from the resulting corner. 

Having been in total control, the Gunners very nearly gifted the home side the lead on 24 minutes. Gabriel was caught dawdling on the edge of the box by Bailey, Rogers played a first time pass to Watkins and the England international looked destined to score before he rolled his effort wide of Raya’s right post. It was a real let-off.  

As the half wore on, we regained control but struggled to pick up the tempo. Partey fired over from range, before Havertz failed to make the best of a couple of half chances. A cross to Saka was cut out and not long after he failed to redirect a Martinelli cross on target. 

Aside from things getting tetchy between John McGinn and William Saliba – the former kicking the ball at the latter not long after an initial coming together – not much happened. Raya claimed a low cross inside his six-yard box and a half-hearted effort by Bailey before six minutes of stoppage time played out at a snail’s pace. 

It was more of the same for the first nine minutes after the break until Raya was called into a spectacular save to deny Watkins. The Spaniard was on the floor behind his goalline after an initial deflected shot clipped the bar but he showed incredible athleticism to spring to his left as the England international headed at a near-open goal. 

The home crowd responded to the close-shave and Arsenal had to stand firm as the noise increased. Onana headed over from a corner, Rogers forced another after shrugging off Partey and Konsa came close to guiding a free-kick past Raya. At the other end, Martinez denied Saka after the winger exchanged passes with Odegaard. 

On 65 minutes both sides introduced players with fantastic records scoring off the bench. Jhonn Duran replaced Watkins while Trossard took over from Martinelli. It was the Belgian who made an instant impact converting a Saka cutback with his first touch as the ball rolled to him 12 yards out. It was a brilliantly composed finish under pressure which he celebrated with delicious arrogance, barely reacting as his teammates mobbed him. (GOAL 1-0)

Arsenal continued to control proceedings before extending the lead 10 minutes later. Again Trossard was at the centre of things, bursting behind the defence before firing a ball across goal that Saka collected at the back post. The winger held his nerve before feeding Partey who shot first time inside Martinez’s near post. The Argentine probably should have done better but nobody in black cared as the Ghanaian raced to the Arsenal fans. (GOAL 2-0)

Martin Odegaard really should have extended the advantage two minutes later but he blazed over following more terrific work by Trossard. He’s missed a few like that at Villa Park in the last few years. 

Arteta’s decision to send Calafiori on for his debut was the signal to shut up shop although that was easier said than done with Villa desperate to get back into things. 

Substitute Ramsey streaked away only to be denied by a combination of Saliba and Raya. They celebrated their defensive action like they’d scored to deflate a crowd who made for the exit in their droves. 

All in all, a cracking win against a side who caused a lot of pain last season.

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karl g

Perfect away performance with an outrageous saving tackle from Saliba! We owed Villa this.

C.B.

Great result, 3 points better than last season!

GoonerJust

2 games, 2 clean sheet. Way to go gunners!!!

Olawale Olayemi

Stick that Martinez. He’s my new pantomime villain after the others have been vanquished. Feels great too to finally win a match where we lost comprehensively on xG. Is this the season Lady Luck smiles on us?

Emi Rates

Martinez really revealed himself for the annoying classless cunt he is from the world cup and onwards. His hand in Calafiori’s face is further proof to that fact.

Fatgooner

I love Martinez: he’s got character. I’d rather listen to him than most boring media trained modern footballers. And remember: he actually knows what it’s like to win something in an Arsenal shirt.

Emi Rates

A man busier mocking the losing team than celebrating winning the world cup isn’t someone anyone should listen to. He’s just a classless loudmouth. No different from Mourinho and the rest of that ilk.

Dr. Gooner

Fats you’re threatening to go from just plain miserable to actually unlikeable with a comment like that

Joker

What do you mean threatening?

Santi’s Phonebox

He passed unlikable quite a while ago.

Olawale Olayemi

To each his own but bloody hell

Emi Rates

I do not know how long you’ve been here but Fats is the misery guts of Arseblog. He’s happy 1-2 times a year. One of the funny things about him is that he bitches as much about the standards now as he did a few years ago when we actually were shit. Every team has them.

Billy bob

Sorry fats, but Martinez is a nasty 💩

ScotchEggsRule

David May won the treble at Utd, so?

Blobby

Don’t get me wrong, I’ll always think you’re a right miserable bastard, but worryingly I’ve begun to agree with you on more and more subjects lately. I too prefer Emi to most media trained players. He’s a little classless certainly, a bit marmite for sure, but at least he has character…

portugunner

„he has character“ better to have none but this one…

Fatgooner

Why thank you!

David C

Serious question: would we have been better sticking with Martinez than spending all the money on Ramsdale then Raya a year later?

Arteta could have bought 2 more defenders with that money, haha 🙂

I like Martinez and his ‘shithousery’. He would have made a great ice hockey player.

___________

Very happy for Raya today! What a save!!!!

Dr. Gooner

Leo Trossard is NOT smiling.

PGunner

Leo Crossard.
Lovely stuff, best celebration of the season.
Love a 2 nil win. Keep it going boys!

Daveod

Absoloute baller of a celebration, I say celebration……look of a man that will be starting next week

El Mintero

Not happy not starting. And rightly so.

Rosapirescastle

He be starting next game for sure

Dr. Gooner

His game overall was superior during those minutes. The second goal came from an outlet pass to him too. Did the off the ball stuff brilliantly. Couldn’t be making a stronger case.

Vieiraera

Raya! Well deserved MOTM. Kept us in the game long enough to wake up. Party redemption goal. Havertz, love him but not the guy to depend on in tight games. Martinelli. I keep saying dude keeps playing within hirself at times.. Seen that for 3 years now. Trossard needs to be starting over him. All in all, glad arteta got one over Dracula aka good ebening.

mrugunner

martinelli need to be benched

Naked Cygan

He will be next game for sure. He needs to step it up.

Flash

It looks like a self-confidence issue

Michael Daly

Havertz – not to be depended on in tight games – except when it’s to win the champions league 1-nil against Man City.

Demetrious

What do you mean Havertz is not the guy to depend on in tight games. Already forgetting how many tight games he scored rhe winning goal for us? He can’t win every game boi

Tobi6footplus

Raya seems at home now. That’s 3 world class saves in 2 games.

Sheldon

He was always world class

Deano

Out of sorts for most of the match and take the three points can’t argue with that and another clean sheet.

Dr. Gooner

Not out of sorts at all. The game unfolded as you might predict. Look up their recent home record. I think you’ll find they last lost to City when they “rotated” their whole fucking team just so we couldn’t win the title.

Santi’s Phonebox

This was the game in my cross hairs due to Unai feckin with us last year. It was unsportsman like and small minded. Really looking forward to Villa getting stretched this year with the PL and CL games coming fast and thick. Up the Gunners!

Emi Rates

Fuck Villa! Annoying cunts!

Botafoguense

Trossard came on, scored immediately, changed the game. As expected. His general play just seized control of the match. And that celebration. Kinda psychopathic, pure cold blooded. Love him.

Henkamp

Hopefully, those Arsenal “fans’ who have set up Mikel for drags on Twitter all week with their pathetic Unai Emery revisionism can shut their yap hole for a bit. Not at our best, still came away with the win. Lovely

Marvinho

Head to the Athletic comments section on every Arsenal page. real vocal fella who goes by Ricky who is either Chief Emery Apologist or a rival fan in disguise with nothing better to do. If the former, trust me when I say he’ll never shut his yap home. But fuck em. Arsenal is brilliant right now. Fun, together, talented, hardworking, young, relatively low ego. It’s the best of sport. Long may it continue.

…and fuck the haters.

Santi’s Phonebox

Ricky is elite troll, no one could actually be that dense.

Amusa

Good Ebening!! Rest all your players against City now you bollocks!

Fatgooner

A fortunate victory from a very average away performance.

We were rubbish for the first 70 minutes or so and were lucky not to be 2-0 down by then. Watkins should have had a brace (yes, it was a great save but Raya should have had no chance of getting near the ball).

The Tross substitution changed everything. Martinelli was garbage and was rightly hooked. One we got ahead we were always going to win. Nice comfortable final 15 mins.

Raya MOTM for the save.

Lucky Arsenal.

PGunner

You kinda don’t understand football properly FG. But I love ya none the less.

El Mintero

What doesn’t he understand?

Rufusstan

lucky or not, winning away at a top 4 side that took 6 points off us last season is a good result.

Fatgooner

Totally agree with you. Playing badly and still winning is the sign of a great team.

Niko

And we should have been leading 1-0 to start things off. What if woulda could shoulda didnt – we won – clean sheet. Tough away game – all is well

Flash

We weren’t excpetional but matched a very good opponent for the most part and bettered them im the end. Probably some luck for us in the chances they missed but you might say they had the rub of the green last season. After watching that taking 3 points there seems even more crucial than it did at the start.

Fatgooner

Aston Villa will take lots of points of the top-6 teams this season, so this was an important result. I just want to see us play better. We are a much better side than we showed today.

I really hope Arteta brings in that striker before the window shuts. It could make all the difference come May.

Billy bob

We did the scum 🥳

Dr. Gooner

The pattern of the game was simply about us keeping it and them trying to break, so it was all about winning duels in transition. They started winning more in the 2nd half (as Wolves did) and that’s how they got chances. They have a bunch of springy young transition merchants and some big boys at the back. Rice doesn’t look fully fit to me. Merino will help. In attack there was too much hesitancy from Martinelli and Kai. Villa clamped down on Saka, so the left side had to do it. Trossard was the difference and showed he should… Read more »

Les Doodis

That’s a fair assessment. The commentators on the stream I was watching pointed out that we were making breaks after Villa broke and I think they were right. Good to see us taking advantage of the resulting space in midfield.

They got away with a few dodgy fouls too, on Saka as is traditional now, and Martinez flopping about like a pregnant salmon. Huh. A really good win.

Rosapirescastle

Wow imagine merino, califo and Leo coming on .
Then if we could have that upgrade forward , be savage bench

Steve Holland

Even if I appreciated that one, Ben.

Daz

Champions, I’m calling it

AP Goonee

Highlight of the game was Good Old Benny Blanco dissing out the same shithousery to mcginn that he did to Saliba.
Love Ben White

Scrubbychubby

Yeah he’s got the shithousery down to a fine art. I think he might actually be my favourite current Arsenal player.

Swifty

In a bar in Sarajevo watching the game. Then only other person there was a Villa fan.. What a tremendous holiday I’m having.

Ebo

Hope you told that Villa fan afterwards “welcome to Bossin-ya!”

Swifty

Love it! I’m going right back to the bar now!

ScotchEggsRule

Ahhhhh! I see what you did there :o)

Joker

Trossard’s ability to score crucial goals is something special. I think given his consistent output for us this year he merits starting games more often. Partey unfortunately looked limp out there but credit to him for making the game safe. Raya was again excellent and I think made one of the saves of the season.

Shirish

My mtdm is Ben white for what he did to McGinn
New Italian is ready for fight too. Good old days

Cannon and ball and arsen’all

Highlight of the match for me was Ben white smashing the ball at John McGinn right after he’d done the same to saliba – fuckin love Ben white

ScotchEggsRule

Loved that moment too. Although it’d be fucking tough, to miss someone as fat, slow, annoying and fat, as McGinn. The fat fuck!

ScotchEggsRule

That was Trossard’s “Arteta, you’re starting me next week mate” celebration.

Excited

Great f**k off win at a CL team!
Raya immense!
I think that whether Martinelli or Trossard starts is wholly tactical. The role of the modern winger is also to tire out the defenders. I will support the team whoever starts organising finishes the game.

Santi’s Phonebox

It works both ways. If Trossard starts he will tire defenders mentally trying to keep with his constant movement around the box and then Martinelli. Ones on with that pace and rips them apart. Or we start Martinelli and everyone knows what happens when Trossard comes on. Either way works but Arteta needs to maintain squad harmony and adherence to earning the right to start, so Trossard likely to start next game. Either way is effective though.

Granit(e) hard!

Good win lads. 2 games, playing at what I will rate as 60% capacity of last season’s level and still winning, and keeping clean sheets too…frightening, what this team will do, when they click again, I can’t wait!💪👏👏

Cala Fury

Raya saves. Jesus gets injured

Sheldon

Arteta does love revenge. I wish we get All or nothing type dressing room footage of his motivational speech. Hopefully now everyone will stop wishing we sell players. We need everyone. Stop thinking about the 11, we need a squad. When we are playing 3 games a week, that’s when georginho and merino etc can play. Partey is undroppable. Man of the match performance.

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