Aston Villa were left to rue missed opportunities as we suffered a 2-0 defeat to Arsenal, but Unai Emery will still have plenty of positives to take from the encounter.
After securing three points on the opening weekend of the Premier League season, Villa had hoped to follow that up with an important result against a top contender.
READ MORE: What Unai Emery said in assessment of Villa’s defeat to Arsenal
Having done the league double over Arsenal last season, there was optimism that we could carry that into this clash, but unfortunately it wasn’t to be as second-half goals from Leandro Trossard and Thomas Partey secured all three points for the visitors.
Villa will now look ahead to visiting Leicester City next weekend as we try to bounce back immediately, and it’s hoped that we can show our resilience and a winning mentality to produce a positive response.
Lesson learned as Villa must be consistently ruthless
Prior to this game, Mikel Arteta was asked what the difference was between the two sides in our two wins over Arsenal last season. He simply responded that we scored, and his side didn’t, as they failed to take their chances.
This was a similar scenario but with roles reversed, as Villa’s wastefulness in front of goal was ultimately punished in a game where we had the chances to secure a win.
While time will tell if we’re able to be more clinical in practice week in and week out, this reinforced the point that we must be consistently ruthless in the final third, particularly when we’re on top and dominating.
Arsenal have world-class talent across the pitch and were able to punish us, but we’ll find ourselves in a similar position against many sides in this league, and so being clinical will be a priority.
Watkins still playing catch up after pre-season absence
After missing pre-season with us having had a deserved extended break following his exploits with England earlier this summer, it’s clear that Ollie Watkins is still playing catch up.
Aside from his glaring misses in this one, his touch looked heavy and the timing of his movement wasn’t quite right yet as he still looked out of sync with his teammates.
There’s no doubt that he will regain his sharpness and be more clinical in front of goal again very soon, but today wasn’t his day, and it’s important that he picks himself up and bounces back positively next weekend with skipper John McGinn revealing that the Villa frontman was bitterly disappointed in the dressing room after the game.
Morgan Rogers continuing to develop at pace
While we saw in the second half of last season what a talent we’ve signed in Morgan Rogers, he is continuing to build on that by developing and improving his game to become increasingly influential for us.
The speed and power with which he broke the lines, led our attacks in transition, shrugged Arsenal midfielders off him and opened things up to create threatening opportunities was a joy to watch, and it’s hoped that he can continue to go from strength to strength.
Now he did lack an end product to go with all that positive play, and that is still an area in which he’ll be striving to improve in. Nevertheless, he was a stand-out performer again in this one, and he has established himself as a pivotal figure for us in the final third.
Nedeljkovic puts in solid performance after difficult introduction
Being thrown on against Arsenal in his first appearance at home would have been a daunting task for Kosta Nedeljkovic, and it showed early on in his performance.
With Matty Cash being forced to withdraw after just 16 minutes, the 18-year-old stepped in and showed some nerves in the first few minutes on the pitch with a misplaced pass and having been caught out of position.
Importantly though, he settled quickly after that and started to impose himself more effectively, showing more composure both in his defensive work and touches on the ball. With Cash likely now facing a spell on the sidelines with that injury, Nedeljkovic may well have a big role to play in the coming weeks.
Important Villa bounce back with strong response
This season will be full of ups and downs, and our response to the latter will be fundamental in our ongoing process of trying to compete at the top level for major honours.
Naturally, this is a disappointing setback in itself considering the result, but coupled with the manner of the defeat, it will come as a blow after so much positivity and optimism to start the campaign.
However, there were still many positives to take from our performance, and it’s vital we show a winning mentality and resilience against Leicester City next weekend to produce an immediate response and get back on track.
That will be another difficult test on the road, but there’s full confidence and belief in Villa progressively improving and learning from our mistakes, with Emery and his staff no doubt already at work in rectifying issues and devising a winning game-plan for our next opponents.
