Aston Villa 3 – 0 Arsenal. Ollie Watkins scores as Aston Villa beat Arsenal. The visitors took the lead midway through the first half when Bukayo Saka turned Matt Targett’s cross into his own net. Ollie Watkins scored twice as Aston Villa claimed an impressive victory at Arsenal and moved up to sixth in the Premier League.
Watkins, who scored a hat-trick in a 7-2 win against champions Liverpool earlier this season, made it 2-0 with a header towards the end of the second half and scored his second soon after, slotting the ball under Bernd Leno after a quick break.
The Gunners had gone into this game looking to build on their impressive 1-0 win against Manchester United last time out, but despite dominating possession they created very little, with Alexandre Lacazette going closest when he headed over Kieran Tierney’s cross.
Instead, it was Villa who always looked the most likely to score and they could have won by an even bigger margin. The visitors had a goal ruled out inside the first minute when John McGinn thumped home Jack Grealish’s cross.
However, after a lengthy check by the video assistant referee, it was ruled out as Ross Barkley, who was in an offside position, was adjudged to have been in goalkeeper Leno’s way.
Egypt midfielder Trezeguet forced a good save from Leno early in the second half before the Arsenal keeper denied Grealish at the near post with a strong hand, while the Aston Villa captain also had an effort cleared off the line.
Defeat leaves an inconsistent Arsenal 11th in the table while the win maintained Villa’s 100% away record so far this season. Villa back to their best after mini-slump
Villa made a superb start to this season with a run of four successive wins that included eye-catching victories against Liverpool and Leicester.
Back-to-back defeats against Leeds and Southampton – games in which they conceded a total of seven goals – raised concerns that their excellent start may have been a false dawn, but this performance will have significantly eased some of those fears.
Boss Dean Smith said before kick-off that he believed the team he had put out possessed the attacking quality to hurt Arsenal and so it proved, particularly in the second half when they looked capable of scoring with every break.
Villa have now won five of their seven games so far this season and has taken some significant scalps already, there is every reason for their fans to be optimistic.
Source – BBC News
