Saka Silences Boo Boys To Seal Arsenal Win

Photo by Molly Darlington/Getty Images

Premier League champions Arsenal maintained their winning start to the season with a 1-0 victory against Aston Villa at Villa Park on Monday night.

Premier League
Teams: Aston Villa v Arsenal
Result: 0-1
Scorers: Saka (59′)

The champions delivered a strong message to the challengers in the opener against the newly-promoted Coventry City last weekend, but now faced a wounded Villa who were put to the sword by Brighton and Hove Albion without registering a shot on target.

Mikel Arteta was unchanged from the win over Coventry, as new signings Bruno Guimaraes and Ezri Konsa started on the bench as Kai Havertz was once again preferred to Viktor Gyökeres upfront.

Arsenal were keen to settle first after a positive opening spell and narrowly missed target with a telling header in the area by Riccardo Calafiori following a corner-kick by Declan Rice, while the hosts responded when Emi Buendia made an overload on the left curled wide of the far post of the net.

After a half that lacked rhythm and intensity, the defending champions resumed eager to energise the tense encounter and summoned on Eberechi Eze from the substitutes bench ahead of Christos Tzolis.

The Gunners increasingly upped the tempo minutes in the second half and provided another threat following a free-kick on the area by captain Martin Odegaard, but the resultant effort brushed the side-netting.

Villa continued to struggle and were eventually cut open on the hour mark when Calafiori raced to the byline before pulling the ball back for Bukayo Saka, who got ahead of his marker and tapped home his first goal of the campaign.

There were chances later on as Kai Havertz unleash got on the end of Ben White’s teasing cross, but the German was not able to beat  Villa goalkeeper Zion Suzuki.

The Gunners soaked all up thrown their way and claimed a hard-fought victory to continue their perfect start to the season with Villa suffered back-to-back losses while failing to register a shot on target for the second game in a row.

Next Three League Fixtures:

Aston Villa: Hull City (A), Nottingham Forest (H), Tottenham Hotspur (A)

Arsenal: Chelsea (H), Sunderland (A), Brighton (A)

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