Match report – Player ratings – Arteta reaction – Video
Well, here’s an unfamiliar feeling: sitting down to write a blog about a game Arsenal lost. The last time I did that was on September 1st, the day after a late goal from Dominik Szoboszlai won it for Liverpool. Yesterday, defeat came even later, a true gut-punch of a goal from Emi Buendia, that saw Aston Villa take all three points,
I thought the first half was pretty even all told, with Villa perhaps having a slight edge in terms of danger caused. We had a goal ruled out for offside, their best chance came to Matty Cash but the redoubtable Declan Rice was there to block his powerful shot. All day this felt like a see-saw game, where the momentum changed from one side to other. Nobody absolutely on top for a prolonged period, but each with spells of possession and territory that required defensive discipline and concentration.
The one time we switched off though, Villa went ahead. Eberechi Eze allowed Cash to run off him to apply the finish, and he knew he’d made a mistake straight away. That was 1-0, and it felt like we just had to hang on until half-time. But, before the break, there were chances for Ben White and Declan Rice that lacked the kind of power that would trouble Emi Martinez. We had as many shots as Villa in this game, but our finishing was not at the level.
It wasn’t at all a surprise to see changes at the break. Mikel Merino looked leggy all day after some herculean running in the last few weeks, and he was replaced by Viktor Gyokeres, while Eze, who had been peripheral on the left came off for Leandro Trossard. We started the second half really well, and the Belgian was immediately impactful. He had one shot which was easily saved, another which he volleyed just wide after a superb pass from Martin Odegaard, and then he made it level at the back post after snappy work in their midfield from Rice saw us regain possession. Saka and Odegaard combined well, and Trossard was as sharp in the box as we expect from him this season.
Villa had constant threat with balls between our full-backs and centre-halves, I’m guessing a by-product of the absence of Gabriel and William Saliba. You almost never see that happen when they play, and it was dangerous. Cash got a cross wrong after a great ball from John McGinn, and David Raya had to make his second good save from Ollie Watkins after he got in behind.
At the other end Odegaard was very good, driving into dangerous spaces, but unable to find the right kind of finish. One, however, forced Emi Martinez into a very good save. Former Gunner Donyell Malen had another great chance for Villa, dragging a shot just wide, and we made more changes with Noni Madueke and Myles Lewis-Skelly replacing Saka and Calafiori who had both been booked (the latter is now suspended for our game against Wolves next weekend). Timber almost scored an own goal, the ball squirted just wide of the far post.
With four minutes of injury time, it seemed like it would end in a draw, but there was a real chance for Arsenal win it. Rice dug deep into his seemingly endless reserves of energy, and produced a brilliant early ball from the left. I thought Gyokeres was pretty ineffective after coming on, but I accept strikers of his style require service. Well, here it was. I want my big money summer signing to read that better, and attack the ball with more purpose. Instead, he was caught on his heels and didn’t react quickly enough.
The ball did come to Madueke at the back post who I think should do better too. Put your shot back across goal, make the keeper work at least, but he clumped it into the near post side netting. That missed opportunity feels all the more acute because of what happened next. Villa went up the other end, we failed to clear our lines properly, and despite some heroic blocking in the box with players throwing bodies in the way, it broke kindly for Buendia to score the winner.
There’s nothing I can say this morning to adequately explain how that felt. I don’t even think I need to because you all felt it too. Being on the winning side of a late goal like that is one of the best feelings football can produce, so it’s fair to say that the opposite is up there with the worst. As I said, I think a draw probably would have been an acceptable outcome here for both sides, I was certainly willing to take that as the clock ran down, but unfortunately that’s not how it went.
My instant reaction, knowing there was no time for us to respond, was to mute the TV. It’s one thing losing in a heartbreaking way, it’s another entirely to have to listen to the insufferable Fletch on TNT Sports blather about it at the same time. Can someone tell this man to just commentate and not jabber relentlessly about how he feels the game should be played? Nobody cares.
Afterwards, Mikel Arteta was fairly downcast as you would expect, but sounded something of a rallying cry for his players who must have been gutted in the dressing room afterwards. You could see by the reaction to the goal how much it hurt them. He said:
We’ve been 18 games unbeaten and still we are there, very close to each other. That’s the level of the league and we know that. That’s the opportunity that we have ahead of us and that’s it. Now it’s time to bounce back. They have given me all the right reasons to think that we’re going to continue to perform at the same level, because what the boys tried to do today, again, with the schedule that we had, it was amazing. So, we move on.
In the cold light of day, having stewed on this for a while, it’s obviously painful to lose that way, and I don’t think we played especially well. That said, I think there are reasons for that, the absences at the back key among them, but also the schedule we’ve faced. Yesterday, I didn’t see any lack of effort from the players, but we just couldn’t hang on. We faced a very good and very in-form Villa side away from home, they had that bit extra with the crowd at their back, and that helped them win a tight game right at the death. It happens.
It makes the top of the table very tight again, but it’s December and that’s how title races go. We remain top, by the way, worth remembering. I’m more interested in the response now. On paper, there are winnable games ahead of us in the next few weeks, and we’ve got to ensure we bounce back properly. Without taking anything for granted, the next week in particular gives the manager a chance to give a rest to some of the players who have run themselves into the ground over the last few weeks, and hopefully get productive minutes into the legs of some others who we need to step up now.
There are always going to days when it doesn’t go your way, when you stumble, and yesterday was one of those. I think we’ve done so well of late, in quite trying circumstances, so I’m not about to get the pitchforks out, but as I said, the resolve and character of this team will be properly tested now, and it’s important we show we can react. A quirk of the fixture list is that we play Villa again before the end of the month, and it has to be looked at as a chance to exact some revenge.
Right, I’ll leave it there for today. You can join us tomorrow for an Arsecast Extra where we’ll get into all of this in more detail. For now, have a good Sunday folks.
