07/12/2025 – Aston Villa 2-0 Arsenal “Fatigue and Frailty: Arsenal’s Title Charge Tested.”

Now that’s a tough one to take. Losing any game like that is difficult but to the team in third when we were the team in the ascendency makes it even harder. This is the first blog I’m writing after a loss and boy it makes it a more difficult job. It’s our first loss since 31^st of August away at Anfield. We have to give Villa some credit; they were very good and had great intensity from the off. They made keeping possession very difficult for us and the atmosphere helped them massively. It was an open game from start to finish hence the chaotic ending, I feel we did create good chances, but we also gave away far too many opportunities. In the first half it was Eze who was asleep for the first goal and as soon as they took the lead you knew we were in for a very difficult day.

It was the second half where we started to cause Villa more problems, a few good saves from Martinez including the strike from Odegaard that he tipped over the bar. The introduction of Trossard is about the only positive from the game, he came on and instantly created opportunities for us, and yet again he added to his goal tally. Aside from Trossard though we looked leggy and from about the 70^th minute there were some obvious tired legs. I feel that we saw the effects of playing those three intense games last week and having to grind out a result against Brentford in midweek.

Raya had a magnificent game keeping us in it at points with some great saves, but all I could think was that the frailties of having two step in centre backs with a right back that hasn’t had much football became more and more obvious as the game went on. Although I thought both Timber and Hincapie had decent games, as a defensive unit they conceded more chances than normal.

As much as I’m bitterly disappointed with the result and the pressure that builds with City just two points behind us, now is not the time to catastrophise or panic. We have a game against Wolves next in the league to get us back to winning ways and we must remember as good as City are the ownness is on us to maintain our gap at the top. Villa were good yesterday and had a full-strength team to pick from, compared to our depleted defence and players just getting back up to match fitness. We are well into the busiest time of the season and resetting has to be our main goal; we must start another of these runs if we are to maintain our spot at the top into the New Year.

We have Club Brugge on Wednesday and we should rotate, Rice has to be given as little time on the pitch as possible, with our qualification for the round of 16 all but secured its time to see Nwaneri and some players that are in need of match sharpness. Let’s not forget that next week we have Palace in the EFL cup where I expect similar changes and opportunities given to players that haven’t see the pitch that often this season. We have two games where some of the more regular players can be rested, however, the injuries in defence have made this very difficult with little rotation available to Arteta. This is made worse by Califiori's yellow which sees him miss the next game against Wolves. Despite my opinions on rotation I would not be surprised if Arteta makes very few changes to the team that goes to Belgium on Wednesday. Either way our main aim has to be to focus on the upcoming fixtures and not dwell on yesterday’s result. Let’s get the performances back to the level they need to be at next time out. Keep the faith.

COYG!

The Northbank Blogger.

Match Ratings:

Raya 9/10

White 6/10

Timber 7.5/10

Hincapie 7.5/10

Califiori 6.5/10

Zubimendi 6/10

Rice 7/10

Odegaard 7.5/10

Saka 8/10

Merino 6/10

Eze 5/10

Subs:

Trossard 8/10

Martinelli N/A

Lewis-Skelly N/A

Gyokores 5.5/10

Madueke 7/10

Predicted Lineup:

Raya

White

Timber

Hincapie

Lewis-Skelly

Norgaard

Merino

Nwaneri

Madueke

Gyokores

Martinelli