Mikel Arteta will realize that Arsenal only has itself to blame if this was the afternoon that they let everything slip. After Crystal Palace unexpectedly defeated Liverpool, his team had the ideal opportunity to establish their title credentials. However, Unai Emery’s Aston Villa team instead erupted in wild celebration at the final siren, as goals from Ollie Watkins and substitute Leon Bailey dealt a crushing blow to Arsenal’s hopes of winning the championship after a 20-year wait.
Emery, who was fired by Arsenal in November 2019 after just 18 months in command, will have found this triumph especially delicious. Nevertheless, he is now one step closer to leading Villa to Champions League qualification the following season. If Watkins and Youri Tielemans hadn’t seen their efforts go unnoticed either side of halftime, things may have gotten much worse for the home crowd, the most of whom waited until the very end in the hopes of a comeback rather than anticipation.
But just as Arsenal’s youth team demonstrated their frailty at this same point in the previous campaign, allowing Manchester City to defeat them, they will worry that those shortcomings have reappeared at the worst possible time after dreadful defense allowed Bailey to score the first goal six minutes from the end, and Watkins completed the scoring with his 19th of the year.
With Watkins excelling in attack, Tottenham’s thrashing of Newcastle on Saturday had given Emery’s players even more motivation to win a result against his former employers. They were also a far more dangerous proposition than the team that City defeated 4-1 11 days prior. Although the visitors were under pressure for the whole of the first half as Arsenal pushed forward, they shown resiliency, and Gabriel Jesus’s anemic Arsenal attack was unable to get through no matter how hard they tried.
Despite Kai Havertz’s recent goal streak when playing up front, Arteta had decided to use the German in central midfield, and if the German had converted the two good opportunities that came his way in the first 25 minutes, the bet would have paid off nicely. However, he was unable to reach a cross from Bukayo Saka and, following a wonderful pass from Leandro Trossard, blasted directly at Arsenal old boy Emiliano Martínez. After Saka had put him up at the far post and Martin Ødegaard’s accurate through ball had set him up, Jesus was the next to waste an opportunity, heading wide before the England winger shot into the side netting from a tight angle.
After a short break with the left-back nowhere to be seen, Trossard’s key intervention on the outskirts of Arsenal’s box to deny Watkins gave Oleksandr Zinchenko a lot to be thankful for. After intercepting Martínez’s poor goal kick, Zinchenko attempted a speculative attempt from just within Villa’s half, but it never really seemed like it would beat the Argentina goalkeeper. Arsenal was bound to score, but Diego Carlos managed to outmuscle Havertz with yet another lung-busting dash through the heart of Villa’s defense.
They were fortunate to escape, though, as a careless pass from Gabriel struck the unwary Zinchenko in the back. Watkins, though, saw his effort rocket back off the post and away to safety. After being set up by Jesus, Martínez miraculously stopped Trossard’s attempt on goalline less than 30 seconds later. It was a thrilling finish to the first half, as the hosts mustered 14 efforts but were unable to make the breakthrough they so sorely wanted.
To their credit, Villa had kept the ball for extended periods of time, frustrating Arsenal, and they maintained this strategy in the second half. When Jesus and Diego Carlos tangled, Jesus could have tried to take a shot instead, but the referee, David Coote, waved away his appeals and Jesus went to the ground, demanding an improbable penalty. Arteta cut a furious figure as his team struggled to regain their flow following the break and the concern of the home supporters increased as Emery lived and breathed every moment on the touchline. Perceiving that today might be their lucky day, Just after the hour, Villa’s traveling supporters could finally raise their voices as their team won a corner and Tielemans, after dispossessing the sluggish Zinchenko on the outskirts of his own area, had his incredible shot smack against the crossbar and onto a post.
Then, as Arteta resorted to Emile Smith Rowe and Gabriel Martinelli off the bench, Martínez was there to deny Jesus with a curling shot during a quick Arsenal move downfield. However, as time passed, Villa’s chances of scoring the vital goal appeared to be increasing, and this proved to be the case. The cross that Lucas Digne was dribbling across the area, and nobody seemed to detect Bailey lurking at the far post. However, William Saliba chose to just leave it alone after avoiding Gabriel, and the Jamaican appreciatively seized the opportunity. With a dinked finish into the top corner late in the game, Watkins put the final nail in Arsenal’s coffin, sending Emery and the Villa fans into a state of bliss and leaving Arsenal fearing the worst.