Aston Villa 0 Arsenal 2 - Matt Maher analysis
Category
🥇
SportsTranscript
00:00Good evening from Villa Park, where it finished. Villa 0, Arsenal 2. First home Premier League
00:06match of the season for Villa, first defeat of the season for Villa, but a performance
00:11which probably didn't dampen your optimism too much about the campaign to come. Unai
00:17Emery after the game felt this game was very similar to the two matches against Arsenal
00:21last season, both of which Villa won. The difference this time, they didn't really take
00:26their chances. That's a fair assessment. There really wasn't a lot in this. Bear in
00:30mind that Arsenal are considered by many people favourites for the Premier League title. In
00:37terms of a barometer, checking where Villa are, in terms of a top quality team like Arsenal,
00:43not too far away you'd say after that 90 minutes. Olly Watkins missed a golden chance in the
00:50first half. The kind of chance that he would usually put away in his sleep, but was putting
00:54away with his eyes closed last season. That won't happen too much. Second half, Watkins
00:59denied by David Rea, the Arsenal keeper. A fantastic save after Amadou Anana's deflected
01:05shot had hit the bar. Villa were on top at that stage, they looked the most likely team
01:10to score. Then Leandro Trossard comes off the bench with 23 minutes remaining, scores
01:15with his first touch to put Arsenal ahead. Thomas Partey, 13 minutes to go, doubles the
01:21lead. Was it a mistake by Emi Martinez? Could he have done better? He got a hand to it,
01:26he didn't look very happy. Villa, goalkeeper, obviously sets huge standards for himself.
01:31He'll feel he should have done better, though he was unsighted. Villa had chances after
01:36that, Jacob Ramsey going through on goal, but great defending from Arsenal to snuff
01:42that one out. 2-0 defeat to Villa, but Unai Emery suggesting afterwards that he feels
01:47the team are further ahead than they were at this stage last season. The fact is, essentially
01:53to paraphrase what the manager was saying, if you played that game again, there's every
01:58chance that Villa would win. 7 or 8 times out of 10 with the chances they created. Probably
02:04the biggest concern of the day, hamstring injury to Matty Cash, came off after 15 minutes.
02:10That's a concern for Villa, could be somewhere that right side of defence, centre back, right
02:14back, probably somewhere they look at the strength over the last week of the transfer
02:18window.