Thump. No longer TOTL. Tough loss today with missed opportunities and no breaks. I was nervous going into this and rightfully so. It does not help when you spot them an early lead. It’s a long season though and there are many more important games ahead of us.
The team selection was as expected. Without the aerial threat of Luton Zinny came back in. And, Villa exploited that for their goal. Though I didn’t think White covered himself in glory again. He should be getting tighter on his man.
We were by no means overwhelmed and worked our way back into the game. And, I would argue, were the better team. And Villa, in classic Emery-style, adapted to the circumstances and modified their approach to retain the lead. So unlike in their game against City, when they had 22 shots, today they had just a couple. Aside from their goal, we were largely untroubled apart from a couple of breakaways in the second half. But that was as much due to the Emery tactics change.
Raya, of course, retained his place. Villa decided to ring-fence players around him for corners but then failed to trouble him. One save on a breakaway that was (incorrectly) called as offside was important. At least he can know that he did not cost us the game or any goals today. Let’s see if Arteta lets Aaron have some gametime against PSV midweek. I hope he does. Aaron needs some game time if he’s to even be a backup. But today we can’t blame Raya. I’ll save that for another game.
Overall, I have this underwhelming sense of disappointment. We certainly weren’t outplayed. We have opportunities in this game. Frequently, in the first half, Martinelli would get past his defender and not quite create the right chance. One time Saka just mistimed a chance after exchanging passes with Martinelli. But too often we seem to pick the wrong pass in the box. Jesus continued to work hard and link up play. But he had one chance in the second half when Saka played him but could not control the ball.
Odegaard had two clear chances in each half. At least in the first half he induced a save from Martinez. He should have scored from at least one of these chances. Too often we seemed to just miss that final pass. And too often it seemed that when it got physical they would invariably come away with the ball. That’s more mental than technical. They seemed to just be more determined.
Lady luck was not with us today. We had a penalty that was not given. We had a goal, in the last minute, ruled out. Saka was called offside for one. As with Luton, as the game wore on, we dominated more. We clearly asserted ourselves. We were though a little challenged with their high line. We lacked runners from deep who could break the line. That’s something we really should have had a plan for.
Rice was again monumental even if he, finally, did pick up a good Fernandinho-like yellow card. In fact, we often looked the most dangerous in the second half when he strode forward. He took the initiative more than Odegaard or Zinny. Have-that had a decent game again though he should have been making those runs to break their lines. But I like his nasty, physical side. He’s not scared of getting his foot stuck in. Whether it’s facing up to Martinez or McGinn. A number of times in the first half he’d help us win the ball high up the pitch only for others to squander our chances.
Saliba and Gabriel – aside from the goal – were excellent. Watkins was generally kept under control. And we saw Saliba misplace a pass today – so he is human. Alongside them White really should have defended the goal a little better. He does though provide more support for Saka and overlap really well. He’ll be defensively tested though over the next few games. And without Tomi to help him he better stay healthy.
I don’t really understand how Jesus was not fouled in the box; how that was not a penalty. Overall, I though this ref was quite reasonable. He let the game flow and did not throw around too many yellow cards. But the big decisions that lost us this game were wrong. In addition to the penalty, that equalizing goal could just have easily been a penalty for handball on Cash. And, he provide minimal protection for Saka. Teams really now implement rotational fouling on Saka these days. It just felt we used up all out luck on Tuesday at Luton.
We missed our chances and missed a gear today. While we dominated the game we just missed our opportunities when we did get behind their backline; always picking out thew wrong pass or – with Odegaard – not converting. This won’t happen in every game. And part of this should be credited to Villa who were, in classic Emery style, very well organized.
The season is long and I’m not too dispirited. Brighton and then Liverpool will help tell us where this team is. How we react to this defeat and then respond will be important. Losing, away, to a contender is the key. Which is why the Liverpool game is critical. Not for just the points but our mental state – our fortitude. We have a painful history of being run over – blown away – at Anfield. We need to go there and not be runover by their aggressiveness and the crowds passion. With Rice we have a chance. But we can’t win the league if we can’t pick up points when we play away at our challengers. And we still have to go to City and the wankers down the road (not that they are contenders).
As annoying as Villa are it just reenforces that this an open title race. Until City get KDB back and turn it on from February. At least Villa and Liverpool both have European commitments. And Liverpool and West Ham have to play each other in the stupid Carabao Cup before they play us. So, chances are Villa will fade as they get worn out as the seasons progresses. But with Newcastle faltering and Man United anything but united, there will be four teams now competing. All of which makes it harder for City. They are used to just fighting off one team – be it Liverpool or us.
As for us, we need to recover from this set-back. We need to find more ways to open up teams of this caliber and we need to correct these defensive mistakes. I don’t want to point the finder at Zinny on this one; that would seem overly harsh – even if the goal originated from his man. Others had time to reposition themselves and prevent this goal. And we should have been able to score.
It’s funny to think how much money we’ve spent on goalies since we sold Martinez. We subsequently sold his competition – Leno. And then spent £50m+ on replacement goalies. At the time I think we all thought – including Arteta – that getting £20m from Villa was a good deal. Would we have been better off if we just sold Leno and kept Martinez? I’m still not convinced. But I’m sure Martinez has no regrets.
Brighton at home next. You never quite know which version of them will turn up. We know from last season how dangerous they can be. Surely we’ve learned our lessons. And hopefully we can rebound the way we did after our Newcastle defeat. Now we enter a really interesting period. We have to maintain some momentum through Christmas. It’s vital we stay engaged in advance of February. Then it will be interesting to see whether we learned our lessons from last year. That is keep Saliba healthy – along with Rice.
-LB7