The less said about Leeds is for the better, the less said about the first hour against Southampton will stop tempers flaring – but could Aston Villa take the way we ended our last match into a tricky tie with Arsenal in Sunday’s evenings ridiculously timed fixture?
Well, we did. I think with 48 seconds on the clock, Jack Grealish laid in John McGinn who broke the back of the net with his effort, but then we had an hour of pointless and diabolical VAR nonsense to deal with over a possible offside – so of course, it was scrubbed out when Ross Barkley was perfectly level on the replays and if a hair was off, that wasn’t being saved if Leno had a 10 minute head start.
Arsenal came more into it after that blow, and it took us a bit to settle ourselves again, but justice was done as a lovely bit of play saw Matt Targett free in the box and poked it across the six yard line for Trez to nestle – it was given rightly as an own goal though.
We were on top, we more than deserved the lead – we’d answered a fair few questions after the last two games – Arsenal didn’t look like threatening despite having more of the ball and one more effort at goal than we did, but despite leading 1-0 at the half time break, the biggest question was – would we get an official shot on target in the second period.
Final 45 was much the same, Arsenal had more of the ball and had a couple of decent chances, but we made far more of the ball with less of it and had some guilt-edge chances of our own (and we’d got some on target!).
We were under the cosh for a bit as you’d expect, but a far better and great target man performance from Ollie Watkins was rewarded as he connected with a Barkley ball and made it 2-0. It could’ve been three shortly after but they got the blocks in again, and this time, off the line.
But it didn’t take long before Ollie had his brace – great work from Jack – blimey, we were looking like the side who started the season!
Arsenal MotM?
Ollie Watkins
Ross Barkley
Jack Grealish
Trezeguet
We want four!
And we could’ve had it as we continued being the only side attacking with intent – nice to see the side back properly.
I’m knackered now. The only complaint…bloody VAR and the scoreline wasn’t greater. Win our game in hand, and we’re top!
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“Terrible” “Toasted” “Lost The Plot” – Villa Playing Ratings After Shambolic Leeds Capitulation
Emirates Stadium
Premier League
8/11/2020 8:15 pm
Attendance: 0
Referee: Martin Atkinson
| Arsenal | Aston Villa | ||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Saka (og 25), Watkins (72, 75) | |||||||
| Leno | Martinez | ||||||
| Holding | Cash | ||||||
| dos Santos Magalhaes | Konsa | ||||||
| Tierney | Mings | ||||||
| Bellerin | Targett | ||||||
| Partey | 45 | McGinn | |||||
| Elneny | Douglas Luiz | ||||||
| Saka | Trezeguet | 88 | |||||
| Willian | 65 | Barkley | |||||
| Lacazette | 65 | Grealish | |||||
| Aubameyang | Watkins | ||||||
Substitutes |
|||||||
| Ceballos | 45 | Taylor | |||||
| Runarsson | Steer | ||||||
| Maitland-Niles | Hourihane | ||||||
| Pepe | 65 | Nakamba | |||||
| David Luiz | El Ghazi | 88 | |||||
| Nketiah | 65 | Elmohamady | |||||
| Xhaka | Davis | ||||||
Game Statistics |
||
| 13 | Goal attempts | 15 |
| 2 | On Target | 6 |
| 3 | Corners | 8 |
| 11 | Fouls | 13 |
| 0 | Yellow Cards | 0 |
| 0 | Red Cards | 0 |
| 59 | % | 41 |