Birmingham : Arsenal suffered back-to-back defeats in the Premier League as they lost 1-0 to Aston Villa at Villa Park on Saturday(6 January). Ollie Watkins scored an early goal which secured the win for Villa.
Arsenal endured another injury setback as Thomas Partey came off in the second-half. Mikel Arteta’s side retain and remain in 10th position in the league.
Villa lost against West Ham United in the midweek and are now five points off the top four places with a game in hand, refreshing themselves with the win against the Gunners. Villa scored inside the opening two minutes due to some poor Arsenal defending, as Watkins’ deflected strike got into the back of the net.
Both teams had opportunities to score in the first half but Emiliano Martinez saved Granit Xhaka’s free-kick, hence denying his former team an equalizer while Mat Ryan stopped Bertrand Traore’s lobbed shot, to retain the scoresheet.
During the second half, Ross Barkley and John McGinn forced saves from Ryan while Nicolas Pepe posed constant threat for Arsenal but failed to score. Partey limped off after the hour mark and Jack Grealish was on the verge of doubling Villa’s lead but Ryan again produced a fine save to deny him and kept his team from going down 2-0.
Martin Odegaard’s close range shot blazed which went over the bar, almost equalized for Arsenal. Watkins also saw a strike go just past the post in the latter stages of the game as Villa managed to secure an important victory.
