Match Report – Match Highlights – Post-Match Press Conference

Final Result: Aston Villa 2-4 Arsenal (Watkins 5′, Coutinho 31′ | Saka 16′, Zinchenko 61′, Martinez OG 93′, Martinelli 98′)

Arsenal XI (4-2-3-1): Ramsdale; White (Tomiyasu 79′), Saliba, Gabriel, Zinchenko (Tierney 94′); Jorginho, Xhaka (F. Vieira 79′); Saka, Odegaard (Holding 94′), Trossard (Martinelli 68′); Nketiah

Aston Villa hosted the Gunners in Villa Park in the early lunch time fixture and Mikel Arteta hoped that his men would end their wretched run of form that has seen them pick up one single point from a possible nine and lose their place in the summit of the table to Manchester City, so a good response was expected again an Aston Villa side that has been faltering in recent matches.

The visitors cause wasn’t helped when Oleksandr Zinchenko lost the ball to Matty Cash further up the pitch, allowing the Englishman Polish full back to dink the ball in behind the defense to Ollie Watkins’ path. With only William Saliba to beat, Watkins showed great movement to put the ball in his stride before firing a left-footed shot that flashed past Aaron Ramsdale in the Arsenal goal. With the kind of form the Gunners were showing, that early knocked the stuffing out of the players, but they had to soldier on. 

Arsenal came close to an equalizer when Bukayo Saka, who was adjudged to be offside belatedly, skipped past his marker and hauled a cross to the danger area that was attacked by Eddie Nketiah and Tyrone Mings, but the Aston Villa defender got there on time to blast the ball to the cross bar, which evidently went into safety. The Arsenal pressure finally paid off when Jorginho and Ben White worked well together on the edge of the box, and White’s cross was nodded back to the danger area by Mings, allowing Saka to let one rip with his magic wand of a left foot, leaving Emiliano Martinez rooted to the spot.

Starboy

Despite the Gunners being on the driver’s seat, Aston Villa took the lead following a very good buildup that was initiated by Martinez. The goalie sent the ball into play and the ball got to Boubacar Kamara’s path on the left, that played a neat through ball to Alex Moreno behind White. Moreno’s cut back got to Emiliano Buendia’s path, but his dummy deceived Granit Xhaka, allowing Philippe Coutinho to control the ball, pick his spot and left Ramsdale for dead.

Arsenal picked up the pace at the start of the second half and continued their attacking play, with a lot of joy down the right flank. White made an overlapping run and swung a cross into the box from the byline. Nketiah, yes, Nketiah, jumped above the likes of Mings and Ezri Konsa to loop a header that bounced off the woodwork before going wide. The attacking play saw the Gunners get their equalizer when a good move from a short corner saw Martin Odegaard tee up Zinchenko at the edge of the area and the Ukrainian drilled a low drive that went past Martinez, to score his first Premier League goal in 92 appearances.

With Arsenal on the ascendancy, Odegaard was pulling all the strings in midfield again and his creative prowess was on show when he carefully threaded a sumptuous pass to Nketiah that was one on one with the goalie but the English forward tried a cheeky lob that went over the bar. These are the kind of chances Arsenal are supposed to be burying. If you thought Nketiah’s miss was bad, then Odegaard told him to hold his beer, and did even worse. Nketiah robbed Konsa that was dallying with the ball, and fed it to Odegaard on a platter. With only the keeper to beat, the Norwegian fluffed his shot and sent it wide. It was that kind of miss that can send someone into a fit, breaking stuff and all.

Aston Villa made some attacking changes, bringing on the dangerous Leon Bailey, and with eight minutes to go, the Jamaican winger was clean through on goal and smashed a goal-bound shot that was tipped by Ramsdale to the underside of the bar, allowing the defense to clear their lines. A draw looked imminent as the Gunners failed to take their chances. Gabriel headed a set play over the bar, Saka was sent through on goal by Jorginho and fired straight at Martinez but it was end to end stuff as Aston Villa substitute, Jhon Duran, curled a shot on target that was parried by Ramsdale.

Right at the death, there was some more drama as Martinelli, who had come earlier as a sub for Trossard, teed up Jorginho at the edge of the area and the experienced Italian laced his boot through the ball, smashing in a blazing shot that hit the underside of the bar before ricocheting off Martinez head to the net, sending the Arsenal universe into delirium. 

Martinez tried to atone for his role in the third goal by leaving his net unguarded to add an extra body to the Aston Villa attack in the opposition box, and a counter attack saw Fabio Vieira release Martinelli, that ran the length of the pitch with his blistering pace before scoring the goal that put the final nail in the Aston Villa coffin. 

That was one thrilla at the Villa.

Sayonara.

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Arsenal 4-0 Aston Villa

Match Report – Match Highlights – Post-Match Press Conference

Arsenal has been trolled times without number for always finishing in fourth place and some have even gone as far as saying that the manager, Arsene Wenger, regards it as a ‘trophy’, but at the start of the game against Aston Villa, a third placed Arsenal could potentially end the game in second place or even fourth place, based on the outcome of other games. Already relegated Newcastle hosted Tottenham while Manchester City traveled to Wales to take on Swansea in Manuel Pellegrini’s last match in the club.

From the onset, Arsenal came out firing on all cylinders and got ahead when Nacho Monreal lofted a delicious ball that was headed home by Olivier Giroud. After going through that long spell without finding the back of the net, that was two in two for the Frenchman. Something to give his national team manager to think about, bearing in mind that Karim Benzema wasn’t invited to the French party.

The first half had some dullness about it, but the fans came to live when they heard that Tottenham had gone two goals down in St. James Park. I’d not seen the Emirates faithful that loud in quite some time but it was good for banter. Then there was a red card to Aleksandr Mitrovic that came around the period Tottenham pulled one back and there was some anxiety shown by the fans, especially with the fact that Arsenal had a narrow 1-0 lead.

Then Mesut Ozil turned up the style with a lovely pass to Giroud that was blasted him to make it two. While the fans were basking in the euphoria of getting a comfortable lead, Hector Bellerin sent a sumptuous through ball that was guided home by Giroud for his second Arsenal hat-trick. For all the stick he gets from his own fans, it’s worth noting that Giroud now has 82 goals in 188 games for the club and I’m backing him to hit 100 next season.

Mikel Arteta came on for one last hurrah and you could see the reception he got from the home fans. It was almost fairytale stuff when he latched onto Alexis Sanchez’s pass to blast the ball into the underside of the bar before the goalie conceded an own goal to put some icing on the cake. Arteta was really emotional at the end as he let out a tear or two as the fans sang his songs and screamed out his name. In an interview with Arsenal player, he said that he will never forget the club but he confirmed that he’s going to hang his boots. It is rumored that he might join Pep Guardiola in Manchester City next season.

There was also a guard of honor for Tomas Rosicky

The players wore ‘Rosicky 7’ shirts and welcomed the legend to the pitch one final time as he bowed out. It was really nice stuff.

To top off a wonderful day in the office, Tottenham were thrashed resoundingly by a 10-man Newcastle and the fans celebrated St. Totteringham’s Day for the 21st year in a row. At the sound of the referees whistle, it was 21 years, five days, 23 hours, 11 minutes and 20 seconds since Tottenham finished above their North London rivals in the league.

There would be a couple of reviews and all as the months without Arsenal football go on. Gooner Daily will also have some coverage of Arsenal’s stars at the upcoming European Championships in France.

Sayonara.

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