Aston Villa defeated Arsenal to launch a wild attempt to win the Premier League.
After triumphs over Manchester City and the Gunners in back-to-back games, Unai Emery’s team has now won 15 straight Premier League titles at Villa Park, raising the possibility of an unexpected challenge for their first championship since 1981.
After just seven minutes, Villa captain McGinn scored the lone goal after diving onto Leon Bailey’s pass and blasting a shot into the top corner.
McGinn remarked, “What an incredible week it has been for us.”
We played on Thursday, Sunday, Wednesday, and Saturday during that incredibly difficult stretch for us, and I believe it reflected in our tonight’s performance—it wasn’t our best, but I’m not grumbling.
“A little grit, a little character, and fair play to the substitutes who came on in the second half.”
Following Arsenal’s second league loss of the year, Mikel Arteta’s team is now one point behind
Liverpool, who took the lead earlier on Saturday after a thrilling 2-1 victory at Crystal Palace.
Arsenal’s View..
Later at the game, when questioned about a few contentious moments, Arteta had to control himself and had to watch from the stands while serving a touchline ban.
After Douglas Luiz’s challenge on Gabriel Jesus in the second half, Arsenal felt they should have been awarded a penalty.
And Kai Havertz had a late goal disallowed for handball.
“I do (have a) big opinion, yes,” said Arteta. “(But) I prefer not to comment.”
Victory was sweet for Emery, who was sacked by Arsenal four years ago.
The Spaniard has made a remarkable impact at Villa, since his return to England over a year ago.
“It was a tough week and now after these three points we have to be happy but also keep balance,” said Emery.
“I will speak again when we are in game 32 or 33. Today we are at game 16 and we are not a contender (for the title).”
Arsenal rue lack of killer striker
There are now more questions than answers regarding Arsenal’s ability to win a
Premier League title without a natural goal scorer after they were forced to lament a number of significant lost opportunities.
Arteta remarked, “We were the better team; we didn’t deserve to lose, but that’s football.”
The only thing we’re missing today is scoring. We made some really significant opportunities.
Even before Villa scored, Arsenal had their first real opportunity when Bukayo Saka missed a cross from Gabriel Martinelli.
They fell behind shortly after, when McGinn scored his sixth goal of the year with a flawless touch from Bailey’s cross.
Emiliano Martinez stopped Jesus and Martin Odegaard to make sure Villa’s lead held up until halftime.
Arteta endured a frustrating watch as Villa rode their luck in the second half.
Ollie Watkins turned a corner onto his own post before Odegaard wasted another big chance by skewing wide.
When Saka did manage to get past Martinez, it was called offside.
Havertz outmuscled Matty Cash to bundle in at the back post, adding to the late drama.
After a protracted VAR review, the referee’s decision to award handball against
Havertz was validated, despite the fact that it looked that the ball had slipped through both
players’ hands during their struggle for possession.
After Arsenal’s loss, fourth-placed City has the opportunity to catch up to four points of the leaders when they visit Luton on Sunday. — AFP
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