Aston Villa hand Arsenal second consecutive EPL defeat

ARSENAL suffered their second straight defeat in the Premier League on Saturday, going down 1-0 to Aston Villa at Villa Park.

The Gunners also lost 2-1 and had two players sent off against Wolves on Tuesday.

Ollie Watkins scored the only goal of the match inside the first two minutes on Saturday as Villa, who had also won the reverse fixture at the Emirates Stadium, completed a league double over the Gunners for the first time since the 1992-1993 season.

Also, with the win, Villa have equalled their total points tally of 35 points for the whole of last season, with 17 games of this campaign remaining.

Watkins struck from inside the Arsenal box from a Bertrand Traore cutback and the shot was deflected past Matt Ryan, who was making his debut for Arsenal in place of suspended goalkeeper Bernd Leno.

The goal made Watkins the first English player to score 10+ goals in a Premier League season for Villa since Gabriel Agbonlahor scored 13 in 2009-2010, according to Statto.

Arsenal responded well to the early setback, dominating possession and creating decent chances.

Their best opportunity came late in the first half with Granit Xhaka’s freekick, but Villa goalkeeper Emiliano Martinez, who incidentally joined from Arsenal this season, made a spectacular save to deny the Gunners.

Arsenal boss Mikel Arteta brought on Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang, Willian and new signing Martin Odegaard in a bid to get back in the game, but Villa stood firm and threatened to widen their lead through breakaways led by the hugely talented Jack Grealish.

The Gunners are now winless in three Premier League games after an unbeaten run of seven win in nine games.

They are 10th with 31 points from 23 games, four points and two spots below Villa who have played two games fewer.