Following another inept and totally devoid of ideas defeat for Steven Gerrard’s Aston Villa side at the weekend, we had an easy trip to the Emirates Stadium to face a newly rejuvenated Arsenal – who currently top the Premier League table under Mikel Arteta – for tonight’s fixture.
With a return to 433 and otherwise extremely predictable selections, everyone knew it was only a matter of time, and plenty would’ve been surprised to see us last half an hour before the ball in seemed to dink of Ezri Konsa, and managed to wrong foot Emi Martinez just enough for him to parry it straight to Gabriel Jesus.
Arsenal were in total control and in amongst the chorus of ‘you’re getting sacked in the morning’ anyone not joining in was simply hoping it wouldn’t turn into a cricket score. Had it not been for a wonder save from Martinez just ahead of the break, we’d have been going into the second half two behind.
Was that Steven Gerrgarde’s bad half? If it wasn’t, we might as well forfeit now.
With no changes at the break, we again had Martinez to thank for saving our blushes as he pulled off another class save from a free kick, but you could still sense the inevitable was coming as the players just looked totally lost, disheartened and dispirited.
With just under 20 being left on the clock, Douglas Luiz and Philippe Coutinho were introduced, and as if to make a point Luiz scored direct from a corner for the second time a minute later.
Gerrgarde isn’t that lucky though, three minutes later Arsenal restored their lead as they stepped back up another level having given us a relatively easy half – where we still achieved the square root of sweet FA. The corner was our third shot on target and taking a point from this would’ve been criminal given just how poor we again looked. Gerrard keeps implying the players need to step up, maybe he should do a better job of letting them know what they are supposed to be doing as most again looked like they were making it up on the spot.
2-1 final score, only Manchester City next. What could possibly go wrong?
Emirates Stadium
Premier League
31/08/2022 8:30 pm
Attendance: 60012
Referee: Robert Jones
| Arsenal | Aston Villa | ||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Gabriel Jesus (30), Martinelli (77) | Douglas Luiz (74) | ||||||
| Ramsdale | Martinez | ||||||
| White | 64 | Cash | |||||
| Saliba | Konsa | ||||||
| Gabriel | Mings | ||||||
| Tierney | Digne | ||||||
| Saka | 88 | J Ramsey | |||||
| Sambi Lokonga | Kamara | 83 | |||||
| Xhaka | McGinn | 73 | |||||
| Martinelli | Bailey | ||||||
| Odegaard | 81 | Watkins | |||||
| Gabriel Jesus | 88 | Buendia | 73 | ||||
Substitutes |
|||||||
| Smith Rowe | 81 | Douglas Luiz | 73 | ||||
| Nketiah | 88 | Ings | 83 | ||||
| Holding | 88 | Chambers | |||||
| Cedric Soares | Augustinsson | ||||||
| Tomiyasu | 64 | Young | |||||
| Ferreira Vieira | Coutinho | 73 | |||||
| Oliveira Alencar | Olsen | ||||||
| Turner | Archer | ||||||
| Smith | Iroegbunam | ||||||
Game Statistics |
||
| 22 | Goal attempts | 4 |
| 9 | On Target | 3 |
| 10 | Corners | 3 |
| 10 | Fouls | 14 |
| 2 | Yellow Cards | 3 |
| 0 | Red Cards | 0 |
| 60 | % | 40 |
Only one answer Gerrard has to go now. Second bottom now and that’s what we deserve and if a major change doesn’t happen that’s probably where we will stay. It’s completely unacceptable
Worse thing is, we’ve waited till the window is effectively shut. No coach could get a winning team from this Villa squad.
Expensive rubbish right through the whole squad with very few players worth keeping