No word from Mikel Arteta. He’s probably in the dressing room reading Nick Ames’ match report, which has just landed. Thanks for reading this MBM!
An early Ollie Watkins goal was enough to settle an entertaining match, as Villa completed their first double over Arsenal since 1993
Updated
Sat 6 Feb 2021 09.47 EST
First published on Sat 6 Feb 2021 06.30 EST
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Key events
A quietly content Dean Smith talks to BT Sport. “I said to them at the start that we’d got away on Wednesday from being a good team. The values of being a good team, the work ethic, being a good team-mate, I thought we saw that in bundles today against a really good offensive team. We started with a good intensity that set us up really well. It had to be a good defensive performance, but their keeper had to make some really good saves as well. You have to win your battles to allow yourself to play. Martinez was disappointed on Wednesday having made a mistake, but he certainly didn’t make any today. That’s 11 clean sheets, the most we’ve had for a long time, and when he’s called upon he makes good saves.”
The marvellous Ollie Watkins, today’s match-winner, speaks to BT. “It’s a big result. We’ve played some good stuff but we haven’t got the results we wanted at home, so delighted with that today. It was hard, we grinded it out. A bit of confusion at the back for them. I’ve hit it with my left foot, I think it’s come off their defender and gone in, but I’ll take that! We were a bit off it against West Ham and they punished it. We needed a big reaction and we showed it. We will just focus on the next game, as cliched as it sounds, because Europe is a long way away. Hopefully we’ll see where we are at the end of the season.”
Dean Smith and Villa celebrate accordingly. They rise to eighth in the Premier League, on 35 points; Arsenal are stuck in tenth, on 31. Mikel Arteta isn’t happy with the referee, again, presumably as a result of the early Konsa challenge on Saka and the Lacazette-Martinez scuffle, and makes his feelings known.
FULL TIME: Aston Villa 1-0 Arsenal
Like he’ll care! The whistle goes soon after the restart, and Villa have secured their first league double over Arsenal since 1993!
90 min +5: One last chance for Arsenal coming up. Pepe is sent scampering down the right and wins a corner. Odegaard takes. Villa half-clear. Grealish goes down clutching his head, with Willian nearby. There wasn’t much in that. Grealish claims there was, and talks himself into the book.
90 min +4: Grealish again, working his way down the left. Slowly, slowly, with clock management in mind. He draws a cynical foul from Xhaka, who is rightfully booked.
90 min +3: Pepe probes down the right, but Grealish does a captain’s job, nipping in to intercept and clear with some panache.
90 min +2: Another Saka cross from the left. It rears up off the turf, shocking Odegaard on the right-hand edge of the six-yard box. He doesn’t get a head on it, and Martinez claims. Brave keeping, because he takes another whack, from Odegaard’s desperately flailing boot.
90 min +1: Saka crosses from the left. Deflected. It looks like heading out for a corner, but Cash doesn’t give it up and hooks clear.
90 min: On BT Sport, Martin Keown gives the man-of-the-match award to Mings. All of the Villa defenders have been excellent, though. Can they hold out for the extra five minutes coming up?
89 min: Ramsey channels his inner Grealish, the youngster sashaying down the inside-left channel and aiming a curler towards the top right. Not quite enough on it. An easy claim for Ryan.
88 min: Arsenal stroke it around, to little effect. Xhaka tries to force the issue, but his long ball into the Villa box is easy meat for Martinez.
86 min: Watkins robs Holding and drives forward. He combines with Grealish, then curls for the bottom right. Ryan’s strong arm keeps it out. The ball loops up, and there’s a spot of head tennis between Gabriel and Trezeguet. Arsenal do just enough to keep it out.
84 min: ... and they nearly pay for not taking them, Saka dribbling down the left and cutting back for Odegaard, who fires a shot over the bar from the edge of the box. Too much power. He should have at least worked Martinez.
83 min: Odegaard gifts the ball to Grealish, who dances down the middle and slips Watkins in down the inside-left channel. Watkins threads a shot across Ryan but inches wide of the right-hand post. Villa have had a couple of half-chances to put this game to bed.
81 min: A lovely replay of Dean Smith’s reaction to Barkley’s tantrum. A brief sideways look of undisguised contempt. He’ll have a wee word afterwards, I’ll be bound.
79 min: From the restart, Grealish is found in the Arsenal box, just to the left of centre. He goes for the top right. Ryan extends to push away spectacularly. A huge save to keep Arsenal in the game!
78 min: Before play restarts, Barkley is replaced by Ramsey, and throws a hissy fit en route to the bench. A hoof of the old water bottle. Now now.
77 min: Xhaka pointlessly barges Grealish in the back, and it’s a free kick in the centre circle. More importantly, it’s a chance for Villa to take a breather, and run down the clock a little.
76 min: Pepe waltzes down the left and nearly gets the better of Cash, but the Villa full-back sticks to his man and eventually the ball’s run out for a goal kick.
75 min: The corner. Some head tennis. A couple of tussles. Villa eventually manage to clear, but Arsenal are throwing everything at this. Can the hosts hold out? It might be a long 15 minutes.
74 min: Partey’s over. He can’t continue. Willian comes on in his place.
73 min: Odegaard gets in on the fun down the Arsenal left. He earns a corner. But before it can be taken, the physio rushes on to deal with Partey, who is down clutching his thigh.
72 min: Pepe and Saka are causing all manner of bother down the left flank. They nearly open Villa up again, drawing some pretty triangles, but the home defence does just enough.
71 min: Odegaard slides a clever pass down the inside-right channel, nearly releasing Smith-Rowe. Targett slides in. Smith-Rowe manages to toe-poke it away, but the presence of the defender means he blooters it out for a goal kick.
69 min: Pepe has a dig from a tight angle on the left. Martinez is taken a little bit by surprise, but still manages to kick away while falling backwards. Arsenal are asking all the questions at the minute.
67 min: Saka dinks in from the left. Aubameyang rises and eyebrows harmlessly wide right, the ball a little too high. He should probably have left that for Smith-Rowe, coming in behind him, but strikers have to do what they have to do.
66 min: While Martinez was being patched up, both sides make a swap. Odegaard comes on for Cedric, while Traore makes way for Trezeguet.
65 min: Saka blooters the ball straight in Grealish’s face from a couple of yards. Grealish stays on his feet like a good boxer. No glass jaw on the Villa captain. Martinez is also in the wars, bravely blocking a low Pepe cross from the left, under pressure from Aubameyang and his own man Mings. A boot in the mush, but he’ll be good to go after some running repairs.
63 min: Watkins, Grealish, Traore and Cash clip the ball around nicely, out on the right. Suddenly Cash barges his way into the Arsenal box. For a second, space to shoot opens up, but Pepe tracks back brilliantly to shoulder Targett out of the road and clear. Great football all round.
61 min: Nice and sunny now at Villa Park. The weather had been a bit grim earlier.
59 min: That’s Lacazette’s last contribution. He’s replaced by Aubameyang, and not super-happy about it. He may have wanted a penalty for that incident, Martinez having taken hold of his shirt as the pair came together.
58 min: Saka sends a glorious corner through the six-yard box. Nobody manages to trundle it in, and out it goes for a goal kick. Ah no, it’s a free kick, Lacazette barging into Martinez.
57 min: Bellerin slips Saka into space down the right. Saka creams one towards the top right. Targett slides in to block out for a corner. Arsenal are turning the screw a little.
55 min: A lovely open feel to this. McGinn sends a low rasp towards the bottom right; it’s parried by Ryan. Up the other end, Smith-Rowe nearly Gazzas his way clear into the Villa box down the middle, but Mings comes across to block just in time.
54 min: Incidentally, Partey has just been booked for that challenge on Nakamba. There really wasn’t much in it, so should he pick up a second yellow, expect to see industrial quantities of steam rising from the Arsenal dugout.
53 min: Pepe jinks down the left, breezes into the Villa box, and curls a low shot inches wide of the bottom right. That was so close. He’s beginning to find some hot form after a slow start to his Arsenal career.
52 min: Villa muck up a three-on-two break. Grealish has Watkins to his right and Barkley to his left. Uncharacteristically, he chooses the wrong option. Watkins was totally free; Barkley is under a bit of pressure. Barkley blazes a shot from a tight-ish angle into the side netting. Poor all round.
50 min: Partey clatters into Nakamba. The ref allows play to go on, as Villa stream forward. Watkins creams a shot towards the bottom left; Ryan parries well. Villa come again, Watkins winning a header near the right-hand post. It’s soft and easy for Ryan.
48 min: Villa work a training-ground corner that gives Barkley opportunity to shoot from 15 yards. He can’t connect properly, and it’s an easy claim for Ryan.
47 min: A gorgeous shuffle near the left-hand corner flag by Barkley. He conjures space out of nothing and crosses deep. Traore wins a corner on the other side.
46 min: Saka eats up the turf down the right, but he can’t find any of the blue shirts in the middle. Early signs that Arsenal have been given the proverbial half-time rocket.
Villa get the second half underway. No changes. The home side are attacking the Holte End.
Half-time advertisement. Fulham v West Ham MBM coming up later today! Allow Jacob Steinberg to get the juices flowing.
HALF TIME: Aston Villa 1-0 Arsenal
Arsenal have done the majority of the attacking; Villa have the lead thanks to Olly Watkins’ early goal, his 12th of the season. Poised nicely, as they say. “It’s a weird place to be for a Villa fan,” begins Jimesy. “Almost thinking a win against Arsenal was possible (or even probable?) again, given our last game and relative table positions. What a change of perception a couple of years has given us. Watkins has been a real find but Martinez is the truly the great signing - aside from the West Ham game he’s been excellent this season, so confident. Heady days indeed. Given we just missed out on relegation, it’s happy days even if we go on to lose this one.”
45 min +2: Bellerin shoves Grealish in the back, the Villa maestro tumbling to the floor. No free kick, which is an odd decision. Grealish queries the matter in the abrupt debating style, and is given as good as he gets from the ref. No booking, though.
45 min +1: Nothing much happens in the first one.
45 min: There will be three added minutes.
43 min: The free kick’s taken and easily cleared, but Arsenal come back quickly, finding Pepe just inside the box on the right. He takes one shot. Bang, straight at Targett. He tries again, whistling this one well wide right. He should have done better; that was a very decent opportunity.
42 min: Arsenal free kick deep on the right. Everyone lines up on the edge of the box. Cedric takes. Traore charges it down, turning his back, but the ball hits the top of his arm and it’s another free kick, ten yards closer to the goal.
41 min: Pepe takes on Cash again, dropping a shoulder and foxing him this time. He reaches the byline and belts low and hard towards the near post. Martinez gathers.
40 min: A proper lull this time. Nothing’s going on.
38 min: A long ball down the Arsenal left. Pepe battles under it with Cash. The Villa defender just about manages to hold off the in-form Arsenal winger, and Martinez races off his line to claim. A decent tussle.
37 min: Something of a lull, albeit one during which both teams ping it around in a pleasant manner.
35 min: Play continues awhile, but when the ball finally goes out of play, Nakamba becomes the second Villa player to go into the book.
34 min: Nakamba crunches into Saka, who is beginning to feel that this is personal.
33 min: Nothing comes of the resulting free kick. A non-event.
32 min: Konsa is booked for cynically bringing down Saka, who was preparing to tear into space down the right. Arsenal want a red, but neither referee nor VAR show any interest in that. For the record, Targett was up with play and covering in the middle.