Arsenal vs A. Villa 1-0 — Premier League
Counting the votes…
Saka is enough at Villa Park
It took an hour for this game to look like anything other than a scrap. The referee blew every two minutes, nobody found a yard to breathe, and you could not help thinking back to last December, when we lost on this same pitch. Then Mosquera opened a gap by releasing Eze, and Calafiori ran to the line before cutting it back to the penalty spot. Saka got half a stride ahead of Maatsen on 59 minutes, so he has now scored in two games running. Villa pushed afterwards without ever troubling Raya, who finished the night without a save to make. We still have not conceded in a competitive game this season, and yet we leave Birmingham feeling we won a match we never really controlled.
Read the pre-match build-up
Konsa walks back into Villa Park, ten days later
Ten days ago Ezri Konsa left Villa Park to sign for us; tonight he walks back in through the away door, and the club statement did not even put a figure on the deal. The scenery has swapped sides: we come with two 3-0 wins and no goal conceded so far, while Villa arrive from a 4-0 beating at Brighton, down to ten men by the 39th minute and without João Gomes, who is serving a three-match ban. Emery hands a debut to a brand new goalkeeper, Zion Suzuki, and to Goretzka, who signed on Thursday. This is still the ground where we lost last December, and we go again at the back without Saliba or Timber.