Aston Villa 0, Arsenal 1: Bukayo Saka Saves the Day as Gunners Keep Perfect Record!

MIKEL ARTETA will look to bring in another attacker on deadline day but if his team keep defending like this, he should not have the hump with sporting director Andrea Berta.

Arsenal are once again favourites to retain the title for a very obvious reason.

And it is not because their front three strikes fear into the rest of Europe.

It was their defence, rather than the attack, which was a key reason behind Arsenal winning their first title for 22 years.

After the 3-0 win over Manchester City in the Community Shield and victory by the same scoreline against Coventry, Arsenal bagged another clean sheet here at Villa Park.

Against a typically well-drilled Unai Emery team, who looked much more organised compared to the 4-0 loss to Brighton, Arsenal held firm with Bukayo Saka scoring the winner.

Saka does not score enough goals for a player of his talent, for club or country.

He managed just seven last term but his close-range strike just before the hour doubled his tally for the season.

Ideally, Arsenal will bring in another offensive player, particularly after losing both Leandro Trossard and Gabriel Martinelli.

They have spent £164million well. Bruno Guimareas, who arrived as a second half sub for his Premier League debut, looks certain to improve the midfield.

Defender Ezri Konsa, who enjoyed a decent reception from the home crowd when replacing Cristhian Mosquera in the second half, is also a great arrival.

Christos Tzolis, a £34m signing, enjoyed a bright start for Arsenal both in pre-season and the first couple of games, but looked more like the player who struggled at Norwich and he was substituted at half-time for Eberechi Eze.

Eze, ironically, was substituted at half-time of the 2-1 loss to Villa here last season but he played a part in the winner and he will remain an option out left if Arteta does not get his wish.

As for Aston Villa, they have been unbelievably busy and it will take time for the new signings to make their mark.

There was a debut for Nicolas Jackson who has cost £65million from Chelsea although he has to prove he is an upgrade on Ollie Watkins.

And Villa’s other new arrival who started was keeper Zion Suzuki, a £30m signing from Parma who has replaced Emi Martinez.

He will have to do a bit better at corners than his first effort when he made a complete mess of a Declan Rice set-piece but Gabriel Magalhaes failed to take the chance.

Equally, new signings Alejandro Garnacho and Aaron Wan-Bissaka arrived in the second half as subs but could not help Villa from suffering a second successive defeat although it was not as bad as the opening weekend on the south coast.

Fixtures Results Table

Friday 4 September

Ipswich

20:00

EPL

Liverpool

Saturday 5 September

Newcastle

12:30

EPL

Bournemouth

Brentford

15:00

EPL

Sunderland

Brighton

15:00

EPL

Leeds

Fulham

15:00

EPL

Palace

Man City

15:00

EPL

Coventry

Sunday 30 August

Saturday 29 August

English Premier League Pld Pts GD W D L Form

1

2

6

4

2

0

0

2

2

6

4

2

0

0

3

2

6

3

2

0

0

4

2

6

2

2

0

0

5

2

4

3

1

1

0

6

2

4

2

1

1

0

7

2

4

2

1

1

0

8

2

4

1

1

1

0

This was the first game at Villa Park since Emery’s team won the Europa League final although that does seem an extremely long time ago, particularly after a World Cup and the most bonkers transfer window of all time.

Remarkably, six of the starting XI from that night in Istanbul are no longer at the club in a major revamp which, make no mistake, has been instigated with the full blessing of Emery.

Still, this was hardly a classic.

With Villa Park currently three sides with the North Stand being rebuilt, there were a few builders acting as ballboys behind the goal but they did not have much to do.

Emi Buendia, who scored the 95th minute winner last December, saw a shot smash against the bar.

Had that shot gone in there would have been uproar, unless VAR would have intervened, as Boubacar Kamara did seem to foul Christos Tzolis.

For the second half, it was not a huge surprise that Arteta acted with Eze coming on and in their first attack, helped by Ross Barkley initially giving the ball away, Arsenal thought they had been awarded a penalty.

Yet while Ian Maatsen’s clumsy challenge on Saka was definitely a free-kick, VAR spotted that it happened just outside the area while Martin Odegaard’s free-kick was poor.

Yet Villa refused to heed the warning and they were undone by a decent move by Arsenal although Victor Lindelof could have done better by blocking the cross from Riccardo Calafiori.

Mosquera started the move with a fantastic pass to Eze and once Calafiori delivered the cross, Saka was in a perfect position to beat Maatsen to the ball.

Villa pushed for an equaliser but Arsenal’s defence held strong in the eight minutes of stopping time.

At last week’s PFA awards, the Premier League team of the season included Arsenal keeper David Raya and three of his defenders.

There is an obvious reason for that and it looks as though they will be equally as mean this season.