Key events
… and so we wind down with a reminder that Ben Fisher’s report from Villa Park should be your next port of call. Thanks for reading this MBM!
… and now it’s Unai Emery’s turn to speak to Sky. “We lost … we compete well … against the winner last year … we are trying to rebuild the team … but a lot of positive things … how we compete … better with the ball … we didn’t create clear chances, but we didn’t concede clear chances … it is positive for the next matches … we had our chances to draw the match … to lose one match is always painful … but after we must try to get positive things … how we can get better … we can feel confidence because how we want to build the team is true … I think the squad we have now is how we planned and has the players we wanted … now we work … work, work, work.”
Mikel Arteta talks to Sky Sports. “I am really happy … a massive win … it’s a tough place to come … we deserved it … a great squad performance … the finishers came in and did a magnificent job … I loved a lot of things I saw from my team … I always trust my players … we have to be really proud tonight … I don’t know [about the potential signing of Julian Alvarez], that is for the people upstairs.”
The match-winner Bukayo Saka speaks to Sky Sports. “Very very tough game, I’ll be honest, yeah … it’s not easy coming here … they made it really really hard for us so it feels even better to come out with the win … they were compact … catching us offside a lot … we weren’t able to implement our attacking patterns like we did last week … we wanted to push for the second … we weren’t at our highest level with the ball tonight but without it we were incredible … all the boys put in a shift … that helps with a clean sheet.”
Then, after an awkward back and forth with Sky pundit Thierry Henry, who is disappointed that Saka has yet to put up a 15-goal-plus-15-assist season, a statement the player heroically lets slide, Saka is asked if he’s watched Chelsea yet this season.
“Yeah, I’ve seen them.”
“What do you think?”
[beat, smile] “We’ll see on Sunday.”
An entertaining, if slightly odd, interview.
Ben Fisher was at Villa Park tonight, and his verdict has landed. Here it is … but a reminder that this MBM isn’t pulling down the shutters yet, as we wait to hear from both managers. For potentially awkward browser-based situations such as this, the Guardian recommends the implementation of a two-tab system.
Post-match postbag. “Thank you Matt Emerson (min 90+5). We do seem to be immediately back in the days of angst, gritted teeth, shouting impolite words at the screen, and generally hating football in the last 10 minutes of a match with only a one-goal lead. For the Arsenal fan, nostalgia is exactly as it used to be” – Charles Antaki
“Arsenal fans have a song for occasions like this. What’s Basque for George Graham?” – Kári Tulinius
Arsenal went about their business in the non-nonsense style. They stayed together, they held firm, they remained patient, and when Eberechi Eze and Riccardo Calafiori combined down the inside-left channel for the one moment of true quality in tonight’s match, Bukayo Saka couldn’t miss the tap-in they’d teed up. They celebrate their win and head off to prepare for the visit of Chelsea on Sunday. Two wins out of two for the champions, just as it’s two defeats from two for Aston Villa, who have yet to muster an attempt on target this season, and have a lot of thinking and subsequent work to do. They’re off to Hull on Saturday for a game that … well, it’s way too early for a must-win, but Villa won’t appreciate the noises off if they fail to take anything from that one as well.
FULL TIME: Aston Villa 0-1 Arsenal
How does that song go again?
90 min +9: McGinn steps across Gabriel, who nicks him from behind. But there’s no free kick. Seconds later, McGinn barges into the defender, who topples over with an affronted look on his face. It nearly bubbles over, but there’s no time for any of that, because …
90 min +8: Eze crosses from the left, looking for Guimaraes, romping in from the right. Maatsen slides in, a scissor action, but catches ball rather than man, which is just as well. It would have been a clear penalty otherwise.
90 min +6: Maatsen clatters Saka out on the right touchline in the you-shall-not-pass style. Into the book he goes. Villa frustrated, Arsenal doing a good job of running down the clock.
90 min +5: McGinn clips Merino out on the right touchline. On a booking, the Villa captain wants to watch himself here. Nothing comes of the free kick. “Looks like the carefree, freewheeling Arsenal, released from the burden of not winning the title, has lasted one whole match,” observes the tinder-dry Matt Emerson, one eyebrow hoisted high.
90 min +3: Buendia and Wan-Bissaka apply pressure down the right, but Guimaraes muscles them both out of the road, before ushering the ball out for a goal kick. Then he celebrates as though he’d just scored the clincher.
90 min +2: It’s all Villa in terms of possession … but they can’t get anything going in the final third.
90 min: There will be eight additional minutes! There’s been a lot of substitutions and some hot VAR action, to be fair.
89 min: Suzuki races out of his goal to deal with a long ball down the middle. A powerful header clear. And this is as good a time as any for Ben Suenaga, of 50 min fame, to explain himself re Japanese superstars in the Premier League: “I know I bring shame by uttering the words but for once with Suzuki we can have a protagonist.”
88 min: How’s this for a stat, flashed up by Sky Sports? Aston Villa have yet to have a shot on target this season! Coventry next on the list with four attempts, while Palace, Leeds and Forest have had five.
86 min: Saka wins a corner down the right … then wastes it. McGinn tries to find Garnacho with a long pass … but overhits it. Raya claims, and waits an age with the ball at his feet before a Villa player closes him down. Abraham finally arrives, and as Raya picks up, both players have a short conversation. For a second, it threatens to escalate, but the two grown men eventually see sense. We play on.
85 min: Zubimendi comes on for Rice, who isn’t moving freely.
84 min: Maatsen scampers down the left and enters the box, going over as Rice and White sandwich him. He screams for a penalty, but there’s no way that’ll be given. And it isn’t.
83 min: Arsenal are sitting back, holding their shape. Villa seeing the majority of the ball for the first time this evening.
81 min: Now McGinn goes into the book for an agricultural lunge through the back of Merino. That wasn’t so great, and he’s lucky the referee has been, for the most part, in a laissez-faire mood tonight.
80 min: Alysson is booked for a late clip on Gabriel.
79 min: Mosquera is indeed unable to continue, so Konsa comes on for his Arsenal debut … and though there’s a few boos, the majority of home fans applaud their former player, who played such a big part in last season’s Europa League victory. That a lovely – and pretty cool – moment.
78 min: … but first, a couple of Villa debutants, as Garnacho and Wan-Bissaka come on for Barkley and Cash.
77 min: Mosquera goes down with what looks like cramp. Looks like a baptism of fire coming up for erstwhile Villa hero Konsa.
75 min: Suzuki makes good by saving from Havertz, the Arsenal striker having been put clean through by Guimaraes. Havertz opened his body and looked for the bottom left, but the keeper won the duel with a fine parry.
74 min: Havertz has a dig from the edge of the box. Suzuki spills the shot, which rebounds the best part of ten yards in front of him, but there’s nobody in 1979 yellow to take advantage, and he covers the ground to gather.
73 min: Alysson immediately gets involved, tearing his way past Calafiori down the right. He’s unable to find anyone in the centre with his low cross. His aim not so true.
72 min: … so Aston Villa respond by throwing on Abraham and Alysson, at the expense of Jackson and Hemmings.
70 min: Arsenal send on Merino and Guimarães in place of Lewis-Skelly and Odegaard …
68 min: Odegaard finds Havertz in space inside the box on the right. He’s tugged back by Kamara, but neither ref nor VAR shows any interest in giving a spot kick. Then Villa go up the other end, Maatsen nibbled at by White as he cuts into the box from the left, but ref and VAR collectively shrug again. Just about everyone in the crowd fuming, for one reason or another.
66 min: Hemmings strides into a pocket of space down the middle of the park. He’s got Barkley to his right, but tries to release Jackson down the middle with a slide-rule pass. Rice is on point to intercept with a swagger.
65 min: … and so having said that, Villa finally reach the Arsenal box, McGinn embarking on a baroque ramble down the inside-right channel. But he can’t get a shot away, and when he cuts back for Cash, Calafiori is on point to deal with the danger.
63 min: … and as if to prove that point, Arsenal slip straight back into a state of calm authority. Villa are yet to respond.
61 min: That goal had sort of been coming. On Sky, Gary Neville points out that Arsenal hadn’t really looked like scoring, but were in the ascendency and staying patient, and finally got their reward.
GOAL! Aston Villa 0-1 Arsenal (Saka 59)
That little chain of events had put Villa fans in a good humour. But they’re not so happy now. Gabriel finds Eze to the left of the box. Eze plays Calafiori in down the channel. Calafiori slides ahead of Lindelof to meet the pass and whip it low into the centre, and Saka, beating his old foe Maatsen, can’t miss from a couple of yards.
57 min: Odegaard whips a cheeky free kick over the wall and inches wide of the right-hand post. Suzuki hadn’t been expecting it, and wouldn’t have got there. Goal kick.
VAR: No penalty for Arsenal
56 min: VAR gets involved. Maatsen did foul Saka, leaning into his back … but the foul occurred just outside the box, to the right of the D. It’ll be a free kick to Arsenal instead.
Penalty for Arsenal
54 min: Maatsen’s woes continue as Saka nips in ahead of him down the right, and he leans in from behind, bringing the winger down as he enters the box. After some thought, the referee points to the spot.
52 min: Thinking about that, Ben … Shinji Kagawa (Manchester United), Shinji Okazaki (Leicester City), Takumi Minamino and Wataru Endo (both Liverpool), Japanese Premier League title-winners all, may want a word.
50 min: Rice curls a delicious cross in from the right, but Havertz can’t beat Lindelof in the air at the far stick. Suzuki claims. Speaking of whom … “Here is hoping Japan have our first Premier League superstar in Zion!” begins Ben Suenaga. “Quite a jump coming from Parma but he is looking right at home. No disrespect to Mitoma and Daizen.”
48 min: Maatsen looks for Jackson this time, with a pass down the left touchline, but only manages to roll the ball out of play, nowhere near his team-mate. Not the best 60 seconds of his career.
47 min: Barkley spots Maatsen in acres of space out on the left. He loops a pass down the flank. Maatsen enters the box and, with only Jackson in the middle, and not in that much space, opts for the spectacular, aiming for the top-left corner. He finds the top-left corner of the Holte End.
Aston Villa get the second half underway. Arsenal have hooked Tzolis, who was on a booking and involved in a running duel with Cash, and replaced him with Eze.
Half-time postbag II, because why not? “Football refereeing is so stuck in the subjective age and so little reference is made to the actual stated rulebook that there will no improvement in consistency or ‘fairness’. Listen to the TV refs in rugby and cricket and they quote the rulebook and say whether what has happened does or does not comply with the factual rule. VAR in football is just the pundit class pontificating about this or that with little or no reference to any particular rule. I don’t like VAR for what it does tot he flow of the game, but being applied this badly just rankles with my sense of decency” – Nic
“Judging by his delivery to camera in the kit video, a career in the movies beckons for John McGinn after his playing days are over. He’s got the cheeky chappie Scot ex-footballer with a twinkle in his eye parts sewn up” – Simon McMahon
Half-time postbag. “I know the new stand will benefit Villa in the long term, but it feels like another thing counting against them at the moment: they could really use the extra support after the summer they’ve had. Always had a soft spot for Villa and hope they do well, but feel like this season could turn into a real struggle for them. Like a flirting with relegation-type struggle. Hope I’m wrong” – Joshua Keeling
“Emery is a splendid coach and a Villa legend, but this enforced rebuild needs to work and it needs to work fast. I am excited by Suzuki and Manzambi but Gomes, Goretzka, Wan-Bissaka, Jackson and Garnacho have bigger question marks than I’d like, and I’d have much rather been adding them to the squad for options than relying on them to hit the ground running. Plenty of Villa fans say ‘In Unai we trust…’ but… I’m trepidatious. Fingers crossed we can get a decent result tonight to build my confidence, and that of the squad!” – Benjamin Gravestock
“Arsenal fans must be delighted that Aston Villa have now taken on the mantle of encouraging us to Visit Rwanda” – Gary Byrne
HALF TIME: Aston Villa 0-0 Arsenal
A half that started promisingly but petered out a bit. The xG of 0.09 to 0.34 sounds about right, and tells most of the story.
45 min: There will be one of your additional first-half minutes.
43 min: Jackson skins Gabriel down the right and makes it as far as the box, but his low cross evades Hemmings at the near post.
41 min: A ball sent into the Villa box from the left. Torres leans into Calafiori, arm on back, and the Arsenal man goes over. He wants a penalty, but neither referee nor VAR shows any interest in awarding one, presumably citing the Not Enough In It For Me law that doesn’t exist but is so beloved of the pundit class. It’s a foul, though, isn’t it, no matter how soft? But here we are.
39 min: Cash clatters into the back of Tzolis, who wants more punishment meted out than the free kick that’s awarded. The referee’s not interested in booking Cash, and once the free kick is wasted, Tzolis gets dog’s abuse the next time he touches the ball.
37 min: Arsenal have enjoyed 73 percent of possession over the last ten minutes. They’ve not done too much with it.
35 min: White takes an age over a throw. It’s 12 seconds before the referee tells him to get a wriggle on, and 15 before it’s eventually taken. Villa not happy; they want the ball turned over to them. The referees have obviously tired of the new laws already. Good old PGMOL, or whatever they’ve been rebranded as this time.
33 min: Buendia crosses from the left. Jackson can’t meet it ahead of Raya, who claims. That move was started by another flawless Suzuki long pass, creamed down the right channel this time towards McGinn. The Japan keeper, excellent at the World Cup, looks the business.
31 min: Kamara skittles Lewis-Skelly 40 yards out. Odegaard loops the free kick into a crowded box. A game of head tennis breaks out before Villa clear. Arsenal’s set pieces haven’t been up to their usual standard. So far.