Well that wasn’t very good, was it? In a match hyped up following an arbitrarily rated home winning streak containing fixtures against the likes of Everton, Crystal Palace, and Fulham, Arsenal’s attack couldn’t produce what it needed to to escape this game with even a measly point.

Granted, the win against Manchester City in a mid week fixture was very impressive – I haven’t seen a team give City that much of a clattering in a long time – but the home performance we saw here wasn’t worthy of any substantial praise. But in football, results are what we talk about, and they are especially what the media will be talking about. Woohoo, Villa won, and the big mean Arsenal lost – rejoice!

Arsenal dominated possession for long periods of the game, totalling 62% in our favour. The expected goals metric tells a similar story – we managed 1.40 compared to 0.57 for Aston Villa. There was a half hour or so period in the second half where a complete besiegement of the Aston Villa penalty area was in effect, but we just couldn’t find the back of the net. Fluffed shots from Odegaard nest sorely in my mind, as well as an early missed chance from Saka – granted, a very difficult one to take, but it hurts because we know that Saka has it in him to put those away.

The performance itself wasn’t worrying. I think if we could simulate that game 10 times, we win 7 of them. We were the better side by far, and we were beaten by none other than ourselves. Villa hardly had a sniff at goal following their early winner which makes the result all the more infuriating.

In terms of individuals, it’s very good to see Kai Havertz growing in form, confidence, and impact on our games. I thought he was excellent yesterday, as he has been in his previous 3 or 4 appearances. This is what we need in this period, we can’t have passengers, and the biggest passenger of the season is finally ariving in the cockpit to aid the rest of the team.

That’s going to be it for now as I could sit here and ramble for thousands of words. Excuse me whilst I figure out writing and how to properly structure these things so they make a bit more sense. I’ll be writing up a Pre-Match post ahead of the damp-squib of a CL fixture that is sure to be a rivetting match.