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Match report – Player ratings – Arteta reaction – Video
Arsenal came away from Villa Park with all three points after what was strange old game yesterday. It could easily have gone the other way, with Ollie Watkins unlikely to have had a good night’s sleep, but it didn’t – thanks to an incredible David Raya save, and a hugely impactful substitute performance from Leandro Trossard.
Mikel Arteta made one change from the side that beat Wolves, Jurrien Timber coming in at left back ahead of Oleksandr Zinchenko. This was quite interesting because in his pre-game press conference, he basically said the Dutchman wasn’t ready to start yet. Another little reminder about how he carefully considers the information he puts out into the public domain.
To say the first half was cagey would be an understatement. It felt a bit like two boxers dancing around the ring, neither willing to throw a punch lest they get suckered themselves. We made a good chance which saw Bukayo Saka’s goal-bound effort excellently saved by Emi Martinez.
Then, in the 25th minute, Watkins Nightmare part 1 was released. Was Gabriel fouled outside the box? Six of one, half a dozen of the other, I guess. If it had been given I don’t think there would have been any complaints, but Villa worked the ball to their main man up front, and he scuffed his shot wide of what was basically an empty net. Raya was going the other way. An incredible miss, and a big let-off from our perspective.
The only other incident of note in the first half was when John McGinn, whose arse is basically Scottish Godzilla in its attempts to flatten everything around it, decided to throw his weight around. When William Saliba was fouled, he booted the ball at him when the defender was on the ground. As he got up to take umbrage with the Villa midfielder, Ben White just booted the ball right back at McGinn. Honestly, I didn’t think it was possible to love him any more than I did, but my Ben White love amp now goes to…
Source link : https://arseblog.com/2024/08/aston-villa-0-2-arsenal-raya-makes-the-save-trossard-makes-the-difference/
Author : arseblog
Publish date : 2024-08-25 07:48:57
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