Arsenal 3 – 2 Aston Villa
Aston Villa fell to defeat after leading 2-1 against 10-man Arsenal. Goals from Callum Chambers in the 81st and Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang in the 84th minute sealed Villa’s fate.
The match began brightly at the Emirates stadium in an open game where both teams had their chances. In the second minute, Maitland-Niles had an opportunity from 10 yards out but put it over the bar. Villa also had chances in the shape of McGinn who let fly from 20 yeards only for the keeper to save. Then came the goal. A neat chip into the box by El Ghazi found McGinn unmarked in the box who deflected the ball past Leno.
Things were to get much better for Villa when Maitland-Niles went in for a clumsy challenge on Taylor in the 38th minute. Referee Jon Moss, ruled it worthy of a yellow card and duly cautioned the Arsenal defender, it seemed a reasonable call. Unfortunately, it was Maitland-Niles’ second yellow card and he received his marching orders.
Embed from Getty ImagesHT: Arsenal 0 – 1 Villa.
Villa started the second half on the offence, pushing forward, McGinn having opportunities to score. However again they allowed Arsenal to get back into the match. On 58 minutes, Guendouzi ran through the Villa defence and into the box. Engels, who up until then had been solid, pushed Guendouzi giving away a penalty. There was no need for VAR, it was a straightforward decision. Pépé took the resulting penalty and smashed it straight down the middle after Heaton had dived to his left.
This seemed to wake Villa up and they created a number of chances. McGinn found himself in the box shooting wide of the goal before Grealish ran into the box and slotted a perfect cross for Wesley to poke home. Trezeguet also had a tame shot saved before Arsenal began to exert some pressure.
The pressure finally told. Arsenal had a number of chances when the ball fell to Chambers at the far post. The ball ran free and chambers shot the ball into the top corner just ahead of Mings who was unable to block. The final nail came 3 minutes later when Aubameyang ran through the defence but was brought down by Engels. Aubameyang took the resulting free-kick shooting wide of the Villa wall into Heatons Left-hand corner.
Hourinhane and Lansbury were brought on for the final few minutes but they were unable to make any impression. Villa had their chances, but in a similar way to the Tottenham match they were unable to hold on to their lead.
Full Time: Arsenal 3 – 2 Aston Villa
Teams:
Arsenal: Leno🟨, Maitland-Niles🟨🟥, Papastathopoulos, Luiz, Kolasinac, Guendouzi🟨, Xhaka🟨 (Willock), Pépé🟨⚽️, Ceballos (Torreira), Saka (Chambers⚽️), Aubameyang🟨⚽️
Aston Villa: Heaton, Guilbert, Engels🟨, Mings, Taylor, McGinn⚽️, Nakamba (Hourihane), Grealish, Trezeguet (Elmohamady), Wesley⚽️, El Ghazi (Lansbury)