Aston Villa welcomed Arsenal to Villa Park for Saturday’s only scheduled Premier League game and sadly head coach Steven Gerrard saw his side fall to successive defeats once again.
Hopes were high ahead of the game as fans expected a reaction from the poor West Ham United defeat but with Villa having lost nine of the eleven fixtures this season against sides in the top eight, it was always going to be a tall order and we certainly didn’t help ourselves with a slow and more sluggish opening 45 that ended without us even registering a shot off target.
30 minutes in as we failed to react quick enough to a free kick and in only clearing the resulting cross to the edge of the box, Bukayo Saka fired in to give them the advantage and we had it all to do again.
The second half was much improved and we were far more in the game – even creating a few chances – but it wasn’t falling for us again and when Ollie Watkins’ effort deflected off an Arsenal knee and then clipped the woodwork it sort of sums up our current luck.
Villa Park
Premier League
19/03/2022 1:30 pm
Attendance: 41956
Referee: Andy Madley
| Aston Villa | Arsenal | ||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Saka (30) | |||||||
| Martinez | Leno | ||||||
| Cash | Cedric Soares | ||||||
| Konsa | White | ||||||
| Mings | Gabriel | ||||||
| Young | Tierney | ||||||
| McGinn | Odegaard | 86 | |||||
| Douglas Luiz | Partey | ||||||
| J Ramsey | 69 | Xhaka | |||||
| Buendia | 69 | Saka | 69 | ||||
| Watkins | 82 | Lacazette | 78 | ||||
| Coutinho | Smith Rowe | ||||||
Substitutes |
|||||||
| Sanson | Holding | 86 | |||||
| Traore | 69 | Pepe | 69 | ||||
| Chambers | Tavares | ||||||
| Ings | 82 | Sambi Lokonga | |||||
| Olsen | Elneny | ||||||
| Bailey | 69 | Nketiah | 78 | ||||
| Carney Chukwuemeka | Okonkwo | ||||||
| Iroegbunam | Swanson | ||||||
| O'Reilly | Hutchinson | ||||||
Game Statistics |
||
| 8 | Goal attempts | 10 |
| 1 | On Target | 3 |
| 6 | Corners | 5 |
| 13 | Fouls | 14 |
| 3 | Yellow Cards | 3 |
| 0 | Red Cards | 0 |
| 46 | % | 54 |