Aston Villa 0-1 Arsenal: Saka winner continues Gunners’ perfect start | OneFootball

Arsenal continued their perfect start to the season this evening at Villa Park, as they ran out 1-0 winners against an Aston Villa side who are still trying to find themselves.

Bukayo Saka netted the only goal of the game for the Gunners when he finished off a lovely passing move by stroking the ball home from inside the six-yard box.

As it happened

Mikel Arteta named an unchanged Arsenal XI after their convincing win over Coventry City on opening night; summer signings Bruno Guimarães and former Villa man Ezri Konsa made the bench, hoping for their league debuts for the champions. Meanwhile, Unai Emery gave Nicolas Jackson and Zion Suzuki their debuts, with both joining the club in the past week after their 4-0 loss to Brighton last time out.

Miles Lewis-Skelly took the first shot of the night after seven minutes, shaping up on the edge of the area before his effort was blocked and flew behind for a corner, which almost saw Gabriel head home after Suzuki misjudged the flight of the ball. Emiliano Buendia took on a similar effort at the other end minutes later, beating David Raya but rattling the crossbar from 20 yards.

Suzuki made his first save for Villa in the 25th, tipping Declan Rice’s close-range header over the bar. Christos Tzolis received the first yellow card of the night on the half-hour mark for a foul on Matty Cash to halt a counterattack for the hosts.

The rest of the first half was pretty cagey, with neither side able to break the deadlock before the interval. Arteta made one change at half-time, replacing Tzolis with Eberechi Eze.

Villa started the second 45 on the front foot, when Ian Maatsen burst through the defensive line before firing high and wide of the Arsenal goal. In the 54th minute, Saka went down under pressure from Maatsen. Jarred Gillett initially awarded a penalty, but following a VAR review, a free-kick was awarded instead. Martin Ødegaard took the shot on but could only find the side netting.

Saka opened the scoring minutes later, though, when he finished off a lovely passing move by stroking the ball home from inside the six-yard box after it was put on a plate for him by Riccardo Calafiori.

Maatsen saw huge penalty claims of his own waved away in the 67th minute, when he felt he’d been brought down by Ben White, but it was cleared by VAR. Mikel Merino and Guimarães were introduced from the Arsenal bench shortly after, replacing Lewis-Skelly and Ødegaard. Meanwhile, Tammy Abraham and Alysson Edward replaced Jackson and George Hemmings.

Kai Havertz was sent clean through on goal by Guimarães in the 74th minute, but Suzuki raced off his line and pulled off a clever save to deny the German. Aaron Wan-Bissaka and Alejandro Garnacho were then brought on for Villa, replacing Cash and Ross Barkley. Cristhian Mosquera went down with injury in the 77th minute and was replaced by Konsa to a round of applause from the home fans, despite leaving the club last week.

Alysson was shown a yellow card moments later following a foul on Gabriel. He was quickly joined in the book by John McGinn, who flew through the back of Merino. Arsenal’s final change saw Declan Rice replaced by Martín Zubimendi.

Suzuki once again came flying off his line as the game entered eight minutes of injury time, this time meeting the ball with a header 30 yards from his goal. As Arsenal began to run down the clock, Havertz and Merino won free-kicks in front of the away end, helping them see out the remainder of the match for a 1-0 win.