Three touches. Three impacts. Three distinct noises. The whip of a perfectly struck football off the meat of Jorginho’s boot. The symphonic clank of the Villa Park crossbar. The dull thud as it clattered off the skull of a blameless Emiliano Martínez. Perhaps this is what salvation sounds like. Those three noises were immediately engulfed by a fourth: the sound of the travelling Arsenal fans shrieking in disbelief, as if rescued from the depths of a despair they feared they might never escape.
Three points for Arsenal, then, and back to the top of the league they go, just as everyone expected. And yet nothing about this felt simple or preordained. Indeed, until Martínez’s own goal in the third minute of injury time it felt as if their race might well be run, right here in the Birmingham suburbs.
Aston Villa led early, led again, hit the bar on 82 minutes, and three points here would not have disgraced them. Instead they lost by two clear goals, Gabriel Martinelli rolling the ball into an empty net with Martínez – who had gone up for a corner – again an unwitting spectator. Martínez served Arsenal with distinction for almost a decade. But they have probably never loved him more than they did at that moment.
A sickening sucker punch for Unai Emery, too, in his first Premier League game against his former club. Ultimately they were undone by a familiar failing: an inability to defend the second balls around the edge of their penalty area. As Emery admitted afterwards, they are not yet good enough to withstand the pressure imposed by top teams unless they keep the ball well. For all the tireless running of Boubacar Kamara and Ollie Watkins, this will go down as a huge missed opportunity for Villa: a full week’s preparation against a team tired and bruised after defeat by Manchester City on Wednesday night.
Scoring and conceding early has been something of a Villa trait this season. Perhaps it was no surprise, then, that with 16 minutes on the clock the score was 1-1 and Villa Park had already been through the full emotional weather pattern. Watkins raised the stakes early on with a fine left-footed finish, breaking the offside trap after a stirring surge out of right-back from Matty Cash. Arsenal’s response was cold and curt: Bukayo Saka smashing in a loose ball from 16 yards after a poor clearing header from the returning Tyrone Mings.
As we were, then? Not quite. Both teams had shown certain frailties and a willingness to commit to an open game. Even so, there was something vaguely shocking about the way Arsenal were sliced open again after half an hour. Kamara – one of the best players on the pitch – was allowed to receive and advance into the Arsenal half totally unchallenged. Three smart passes and an Emi Buendía dummy later, the ball was at the feet of Philippe Coutinho, who gave Aaron Ramsdale the eyes and sent him the wrong way.
Would Thomas Partey have let that happen? Would Gabriel Jesus? Would Moisés Caicedo? Arsenal’s comeback should not obscure just how spent they looked in that first half. Yet for all the little blemishes that have crept in over recent weeks there remain signs of optimism. Jorginho was already having a fine game before his late coup de grace. Saka, who was again kicked to shreds all afternoon, has lost none of his threat. Martinelli, dropped for Leandro Trossard, reacted well off the bench and gave Arsenal an injection of energy in the final minutes. And they retain the fortunate habit of being able to conjure goals from virtually nothing.
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Here it came from Oleksandr Zinchenko on the hour, smashing the ball in low after a short corner was worked to him. And so to the ragged, breathless denouement, in which both sides lived as dangerously as they dared.
Emery introduced the fresh legs of Jacob Ramsey and Leon Bailey in anticipation of a stretched game. Bailey had the best chance to win it for Villa, Ramsdale with a brilliant save to tip his shot on to the bar. At the other end Eddie Nketiah and Martin Ødegaard both missed with the goal at their mercy.
Yet Arsenal prevailed at the very end. This was a ragged performance from them: uneven and slow in parts. There remain serious doubts about their strength in depth, their levels of fatigue, their temperament under pressure. But here they showed why nobody has ever doubted their heart.
