Aston Villa (1) 1 Arsenal (0) 0
Premier League
Villa Park, Trinity Road, Birmingham B6 6HE
Saturday, 9th December 2023. Kick-off time: 5.30pm
(4-3-3) David Raya; Ben White, William Saliba, Gabriel Magalhães, Oleksandr Zinchenko; Martin Ødegaard (c), Declan Rice, Kai Havertz; Bukayo Saka, Gabriel Jesus, Gabriel Martinelli.
Substitutes: Aaron Ramsdale, Eddie Nketiah, Jakob Kiwior, Cédric Soares, Leandro Trossard, (Jorge Luiz Frello Filho) Jorginho, Reiss Nelson, Mohamed Elneny, Reuell Walters.
Yellow Cards: Oleksandr Zinchenko, Declan Rice
Arsenal Possession Percentage: 61%
Referee: Jarred Gillett
Assistant Referees: Darren Cann, James Mainwaring
Fourth Official: Graham Scott
VAR Team at Stockley Park: VAR Michael Salisbury; AVAR Scott Ledger
Attendance: c.42,000
Mikel Arteta has picked up his third booking of the season celebrating Declan Rice’s winner at Kenilworth Road last Tuesday and will have to watch today’s match against Aston Villa from the stands, which is ridiculous. On the other hand, our captain Martin Ødegaard is set to make his one hundredth Premier League appearance at Villa Park. There is only one change from the Tuesday match against Luton Town, and that is Oleksandr Zinchenko, who is preferred at left-back with Jakub Kiwior dropping to the substitute’s bench.
Straight from the kick-off, the home side came right out of the blocks at us, and although we seemed to barely get out of our half, we did manage to break out with Gabriel Martinelli running down the left wing and crossing the ball for Bukayo Saka, but he was just unable to connect with the ball. However, after just seven minutes, we were a goal down when Villa captain John McGinn turned and shot the ball past David Raya to open the scoring, so early in the match. The goal certainly unbalanced us, with the home side getting the bit between their teeth and pressurising us back into our own half, actively looking for that elusive second goal of the game. Just after a quarter of an hour, Kai Havertz dispossessed Boubacar Kamara, slotted the ball towards Bukayo Saka, whose left-footed shot was blocked by the Villa defence. Shortly afterwards, Bukayo Saka perfectly timed his run to beat the Aston Villa offside trap to go around former Arsenal goalkeeper Emiliano Martinez, but the angle was far too tight and the home side defenders cleared his attempted pullback, which was a shame, as it was a great effort. Oleksandr Zinchenko received a yellow card for pulling the shirt of Youri Tielemans, and we started to play with purpose and desire in the Villa half looking for that elusive equaliser. Declan Rice grabbed the ball from John McGinn, passed the ball neatly to Bukayo Saka, but his curling effort was athletically pushed away by the Villa goalie. Ten minutes before the break, Martin Ødegaard let a beautiful ball from Bukayo Saka run across him, he took a delicate touch to balance himself and hit a low, strong shot which went inches past the Villa post, and then Gabriel Martinelli deftly beat the Villa offside trap, and neatly chipped the ball over Emiliano Martinez but Diego Carlos managed to run back and clear the danger. So close. We were closing in hard on the Villa defence, as a lovely touch from Gabriel Jesus set up Martin Ødegaard, who pushed the ball into space before shooting low and hard towards the bottom corner of the net, but the Villa goalie was there on hand to stop a possible equaliser. A couple of minutes before half-time, a quick shot from Gabriel Jesus brought out a reflex save from Emiliano Martinez. During the two minutes injury time, Gabriel Martinelli hit a shot over the Villa crossbar, and despite some great chances, we went into the hiatus a goal down.
The home side started the second half proceedings, and almost immediately we had a penalty appeal turned down by both the referee and VAR officials when Gabriel Jesus went to ground after a poor tackle. We were applying pressure to the Villa defence, and were pinning Villa down in their own half. They could not get out, and we could not score at that present moment in time. Stalemate. However, we won a free-kick in a promising position on the right wing when Lucas Digne pulled Bukayo Saka back by his shorts, but the subsequent set-piece went nowhere. After a lovely movement, our captain had a good chance to score, but his attempt went wide of the mark, sadly. Lucas Digne smacked a sweet low strike at the Arsenal goal, drawing a good save from David Raya. Bukayo Saka got the ball into the net just after the hour, but it was cancelled out for an offside infringement. We were dominating the second half, but just could not find the right comnination to undo the Villa defence, although we had to be careful as we almost got caught by a “smash’n’grab” movement by the home side when Moussa Diaby found a lot of space out on the right and picked out Ollie Watkins in the middle of the pitch, but fortunately his weak shot was easily gathered up by David Raya. Leandro Trossard replaced Gabriel Martinelli with twenty minutes of the match remaining, and after John McGinn received a yellow card for an appalling tackle on our captain, Declan Rice received our second yellow card of the game for a silly tackle. Eddie Nketiah replaced Gabriel Jesus as the match entered the last ten minutes of the contest, and then Leandro Trossard went down to the floor after a tussle with Matty Cash, but was soon able to return to action shortly afterwards. After a clash between Diego Carlos and Eddie Nketiah, literally on the ninetieth minute, Kai Havertz got the ball in the Villa net, but after a consultation with the VAR officials, the goal was cancelled out, sadly. In the first minute of injury time, Oleksandr Zinchenko was replaced by Reiss Nelson, and almost immediately we were put under pressure by the Villa forwards, but thankfully we managed to keep the ball away from David Raya. We continued to put pressure on the home side, but unfortunately, it was not to be our day in Birmingham.
Okay, there were times when we were not firing on all cylinders in the first half, but after half-time, we surely did enough to grab a draw at Villa Park, despite a hotly disputed penalty appeal and incredibly, a poor decision by the match officials in denying us an equaliser on the ninetieth minute. One of those days, sadly, on another day we would have done enough to draw, or even win, but it was not to be, unfortunately. But we are still in second place behind current leaders Liverpool with just a mere point separating the two clubs.
Remember everyone, keep the faith, get behind the team and the manager, as this season is going to be crucial for our future success in all competitions. Stick with the winners. Our next match: PSV Eindhoven at Phillips Stadion on Tuesday, 12th December at 5.45pm(Champions League). Be there, if you can. Victoria Concordia Crescit.
Steve
Too Dearly Loved To Be Forgotten: Arsenal v Racing Club de Paris 1930-1962 by Steve Ingless (Rangemore Publications, ISBN 978-1-5272-0135-4) is now available on Amazon
She Wore A Yellow Ribbon 
Thought we were magnificent yesterday, played them off the park but just couldn`t find the breakthrough. One of those games where if you score one, the second would have quickly followed. Just wasn`t meant to but we weren`t helped by the officials either.
We`ve lost 2 games now and both times we`ve been on the end of absolutely shocking decisions. This Aussie cunt Gillett is a disgrace, every time he is on an Arsenal game he finds a way to fuck us.
I`m OK with penalty decisions like the one on Jesus not being given, it would have been soft but in the modern game, that`s given AT LEAST 70% of the time. The disallowed goal was unbelievable, the cunt just guessed and hoped VAR would somehow find a way to back their pal up.
Cash handled the ball first and stops it going towards goal. There was only two decisions an honest group of officials can make there, its either a penalty to The Arse or a goal. Fucking scandalous.
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