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Bukayo Saka poked in Riccardo Calafiori’s low cutback in the 59th minute to give Arsenal a 1-0 win at Aston Villa and a second victory from two matches. Eberechi Eze, on at half-time, supplied the pass that started the move. Villa have lost both their opening games and have still not registered a shot on target this season. It was Mikel Arteta’s 250th Premier League match in charge.
Birmingham, England: Aston Villa have played 180 minutes of this Premier League season and have not once made a goalkeeper save a shot.
They were better than that record suggests on Monday night. After being four goals down inside 31 minutes at Brighton on the opening weekend, Unai Emery’s rebuilt side competed for an hour here and had the champions distinctly uncomfortable. They just could not hit the target.
Suzuki’s Night
Replacing a World Cup-winning goalkeeper for a home game against the champions is not the gentlest introduction to English football, and Zion Suzuki handled it well. The Japan international, in for the departed Emiliano Martinez, flapped at one early cross and then tipped a near-post header over, at which point the Holte End began chanting that he was the world’s number one — the song they used to sing for the man he replaced.
Villa’s best moment came early. Arsenal hesitated, expecting a foul on Boubacar Kamara, and Emiliano Buendia struck a rasping effort past David Raya and off the top of the crossbar. Arsenal wanted a penalty of their own before the break when Calafiori went down under Pau Torres. It was waved away.
Eze Changes It
Arteta had seen enough of a blunt first half and replaced Christos Tzolis with Eberechi Eze at the interval.
Almost immediately Kai Havertz got on the end of Declan Rice’s pass and Victor Lindelof got across to stop him. Then Ian Maatsen barged Saka over and the referee pointed to the spot, only for VAR to establish the contact was fractionally outside the box. Martin Odegaard curled the free-kick inches wide.
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The reprieve lasted a few minutes. Eze slid a pass into Calafiori’s run down the left, the Italian pulled it back low across the six-yard box, and Saka forced it in. It was his second goal in two games.
Havertz might have made it more comfortable. Suzuki saved his blast, and then kept him out one-on-one on 75, by which point the flag was up anyway.
Konsa Comes Home
Ezri Konsa, sold to Arsenal earlier this month, came on for Cristhian Mosquera to a mixture of boos and applause from supporters who clearly had not decided how to feel about it. Bruno Guimaraes and Mikel Merino were introduced alongside him as Arteta turned the closing stages into a physical exercise, and Villa never got near an equaliser. Maatsen was booked for a heavy challenge on Saka as Arsenal ran the clock down.
Arteta called it a massive win at a tough place and said the memory of losing here last season to the last kick of the game had still been in the stomach. Emery, whose side gave debuts to Suzuki and Nicolas Jackson, said they had competed well and that there were positives in a rebuild.
Two Games, No Shots on Target
Arsenal finished with 1.05 expected goals to Villa’s 0.3, and neither number flatters anyone.
But the numbers around Villa are the story. They are only the second side on record since 2003-04 to go through their first two Premier League matches without a shot on target, after Swansea in 2017-18. The last time they failed to manage one in a home league game was May 2016. The last time they lost their opening two fixtures without scoring was 2002. Shorn of Ollie Watkins, Martinez and Konsa, they sit joint bottom with Tottenham on the eve of the transfer deadline.
There is precedent for recovery: they failed to score in their first four league games last season and turned the campaign around from there.
Arsenal, meanwhile, have won their opening away league match without conceding for a fifth consecutive season, which they have never done before, and have now scored in 18 successive Premier League games — their longest such run since a sequence of 20 that ended in January 2019. They are one of four sides still perfect, along with Manchester City, Chelsea and Hull City.
Aston Villa 0 lost to Arsenal 1 (Saka 59′)
Half-time: Aston Villa 0-0 Arsenal · Venue: Villa Park, Birmingham
