Ratings & Reactions: Villa v Arsenal

[Lichfield Dean]

Honestly, I thought we were great. I felt we looked a step above last season. We were every bit the equal of Arsenal, rather than looking like a team punching above its weight.

Result didn't go our way but hey that is what happens when top teams play each other. They can't all win every game.

I feel like we've genuinely muscled our way into the top echelons of the premier league now, I really do. If Ollie can get his shooting boots on I can't see why we can't have an evening better season than the last one. 80+ points? I'm definitely not ruling it out.

Amazing stuff from Emery and the owners.

[Lichfield Dean]

32 minutes ago, bakers29 said:

Oh ok, issues with tickets?

Don't know about elsewhere but the doors to the the Upper Doug Ellis were still closed with less than half an hour to kickoff with big queues building up outside. Complete and total shambles.

[479Villan]

I saw an Arsenal fan post that they were worse than last year, and we were better, and they won. 
 

That’s exactly right. 

[ferguson1]

1 minute ago, Lichfield Dean said:

Honestly, I thought we were great. I felt we looked a step above last season. We were every bit the equal of Arsenal, rather than looking like a team punching above its weight.

Result didn't go our way but hey that is what happens when top teams play each other. They can't all win every game.

I feel like we've genuinely muscled our way into the top echelons of the premier league now, I really do. If Ollie can get his shooting boots on I can't see why we can't have an evening better season than the last one. 80+ points? I'm definitely not ruling it out.

Amazing stuff from Emery and the owners.

Exactly. Thankfully the majority on here see this as well. We’ve made massive strides and the signs are we’re in for another promising and productive season. Unfortunately, the minority on here don’t see this, but only the score line.

We went toe to toe with a title challenger and if we’d been more clinical, a different result would have happened. I’m disappointed obviously but can see the positives from the game. UTV

[TDR V2]

A game of 2 chances each, were missed ours and they got theirs.

Rogers MOTM, they couldn't get near him

[Villastine]

Reminds me a bit of the West Ham season opener last year.  Huge positives to take from a loss, a rare thing in football. 

As a layman, I'd question the first subs. They made sense last week but I think Maatsen and Duran on would have been a better option. 

Our midfield was purring and in my view the withdrawal of McGinn disorganised us a little. 

As I said, that's how it looked to my untrained eye. It's only an opinion. 

Trossard and Raya were deadly. Ollie and Emi weren't. That was the real difference today.  

[allani]

One of those weird games.  Probably the best we've played as a team against Arsenal for 10 years or more.  We bossed them in midfield.  Saka barely got a touch.  Should probably have been 2-0 or maybe even 3-0 up.  Then a block bounces straight to one of their players who finds the corner and Emi's possibly slightly unsighted for the second but will feel that he should have got a bigger touch.

As others have said we played better than the two matches against them last year, they looked less threatening than they did last year but this time we lost.  If we play that well in most matches we'll do very well this season.

As it is we're +2 points on my predictions for the first two matches (1-1 v West Ham and 0-2 today) and playing pretty well.

[TDR V2]

The queues were avoidable, loads of folks got there early for the players coach. That white thing they are building ain't gonna be big enough

[allani]

1 minute ago, Villastine said:

Reminds me a bit of the West Ham season opener last year.  Huge positives to take from a loss, a rare thing in football. 

As a layman, I'd question the first subs. They made sense last week but I think Maatsen and Duran on would have been a better option. 

Our midfield was purring and in my view the withdrawal of McGinn disorganised us a little. 

As I said, that's how it looked to my untrained eye. It's only an opinion. 

Trossard and Raya were deadly. Ollie and Emi weren't. That was the real difference today.  

Funny because I thought we probably could have brought on Ramsey for McGinn a little earlier.  We had Arsenal's midfield and defenders scrambling and Ramsey's running with the ball offered additional threat.  But I guess we all see things slightly differently.

But yeah two poor misses and one clinical finish was the difference.

Lots of positives to take away.  Just hope that Ollie can put those misses behind him and focus on making up for it next weekend.

[TDR V2]

Oh and the LED things Heck was on about looked the same as last season, not sure what was supposed to be different about them

[maqroll]

28 minutes ago, Herman22 said:

Funny that our two best players were off it today and it cost us. 

The two that played the least in preseason, as well. Ollie really should have seen some game time vs Dortmund.

[stewiek2]

1 hour ago, Jas10 said:

 

Dam right. Without his goals and assists we wouldn't be near champions league. Some people need to remember that. God we have short memories. He's had absolutely no preseason. Give the guy a break. Once he gets to speed he'll fire us again to top four.

[TomC]

2 hours ago, striker said:

That being said I loved the way Villa tied Arsenal in knots by playing defensively in the first half.

Emery has finally learnt you can't play open high line football against teams like Arsenal. It's generally footballing suicide to do so.

I hadn't thought about, but this is an excellent point. We really didn't see the trap at all today. In fact, they were offside only once.

 

[foreveryoung]

MOtD said we were brilliant and stopped Arsenal from playing. That's good enough for me!

Even though Micah said it. Always thought he talked alot of sense 

[Coolman]

We played well as everyone has stated we must put our chances away .

Watkins needs to get his confidence back it’s 7 games without a goal so may have to start Duran 

[PieFacE]

We played really well. Difficult one to take. 

 

[TheMelvillan]

Would have been nice to bring on Sterling for Bailly at half time....

[GAVFV77]

Goes to show how far we have come, disappointed to lose to last seasons runner ups. Thought we were excellent today, great owners, top class manager and a fully committed team, just need to improve on getting in to the stadium  

[Czarnikjak]

1 hour ago, allani said:

One of those weird games.  Probably the best we've played as a team against Arsenal for 10 years or more.  We bossed them in midfield.  Saka barely got a touch.  Should probably have been 2-0 or maybe even 3-0 up.  Then a block bounces straight to one of their players who finds the corner and Emi's possibly slightly unsighted for the second but will feel that he should have got a bigger touch.

As others have said we played better than the two matches against them last year, they looked less threatening than they did last year but this time we lost.  If we play that well in most matches we'll do very well this season.

As it is we're +2 points on my predictions for the first two matches (1-1 v West Ham and 0-2 today) and playing pretty well.

Saka barely got a touch? He had more touches than any of our midfielders or attackers. Also saying we bossed the midfield is a stretch. They had over 60% of possession and twice the amount of touches in the box we had.

We played well, but let's not make up things that didn't happened.

[nick76]

2 hours ago, Lichfield Dean said:

Honestly, I thought we were great. I felt we looked a step above last season. We were every bit the equal of Arsenal, rather than looking like a team punching above its weight.

Result didn't go our way but hey that is what happens when top teams play each other. They can't all win every game.

I feel like we've genuinely muscled our way into the top echelons of the premier league now, I really do. If Ollie can get his shooting boots on I can't see why we can't have an evening better season than the last one. 80+ points? I'm definitely not ruling it out.

Amazing stuff from Emery and the owners.

Exactly how I’m feeling tonight.  First goal either way was going to win that game imo.