We came from behind twice to win all three points at The Emirates on Sunday following a topsy turvy game which Villa didn’t deserve to lose.
John McGinn put Villa 1-0 up in the first half, and we had to play the whole of the second half with ten men after Ainsley Maitland-Niles got himself sent-off before half-time for two yellow cards, the makeshift defender limping off after the red card to compound a miserable afternoon.
Arsenal’s man of the match Matteo Guendouzi was brought down in the box after the restart, and Nicolas Pepe lashed the spot kick home to level the game. Villa went up the other end and scored to put themselves back in the driving seat, and had chances to put the game out of reach, but they just weren’t clinical enough as our patchy defence continued to look shaky.
David Luiz almost got us back on terms, but the Villa’s Heaton was equal to it, palming the Brazilian’s free kick over the bar. Heaton made another good save after it looked as though Guendouzi’s effort had crept inside his near post. With ten minutes left, we needed something to happen and our second equaliser of the afternoon came from an unlikely source to set up a grandstand finish.
Calum Chambers of all people, found himself in the box and as Mings got in the way of his first effort, Chambers reacted quicker and toe-poked across the keeper to level things up and the hunt for the winner was on.
Just three minutes later, that man again Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang put us in front for the first time with a 25 yard free kick which went through the wall and into the back of the net for 3-2.
Villa themselves were unlucky not to get a very late penalty as Sokratis looked to use an arm to deflect a shot away, but the referee and VAR somehow missed it and we held on to three very fortunate points, ending the weekend up in fourth place behind Liverpool, Man City and Leicester, all winners this weekend as well.
Next up is our League Cup clash with Nottingham Forest on Tuesday night at The Emirates, a game where Unai Emery will probably use a mixture of youth and experience. Team news tomorrow reader(s).
