Arsenal v Aston Villa All-in-one Thread (Match #272) (Post-match #993)

[pbavfckuwait]

Team has such a high energy level, we are gonna cause teams plenty of problems, Guzan nearly MOM, but Delph is not the player we thought we'd bought, he is a future England International, he will add goals to his game this year because he gets into positions that will ensure he does score. We need to be more precise at times with our passing, but lest enjoy the ride, cos I have a feeling it will be very interesting and what today has done for confidence god only knows. Bring on the Chavs.

[Havencheese]

Met an Arse fan briefly on Holiday. He was typical and very dismissive of our chances, seeing this as an easy start.

Well he can .......## stick that in his ..###ing pipe and smoke it.

According to the coverage I had, Arsenal will see themselves as very unlucky with all the key decisions going against them. LOL

Well done Villa. Shine on Tony Moon#

The hubris, they can wallow in a mire of their own thereabouts mediocrity. At least we know who we are and we took three points today at theirs and they can HAVE THAT!

[barrysleftfoot]

 KEA MOM for me, but Delph very close.Forgot Walcott was playing which was testament to Luna.Thought Benteke was top quality, and pleasantly surprised with how well Clark played.

 Don't know who said it earlier, but the turning point was Girouds chance, still who cares.

[onje_villa]

I take it all back, great result!

I take credit for turning off watching it live to follow it on the forum. Couldn't cope with the stress to be honest.

Was Sagna OK in the end?

[Andy_Lochhead_in_the_air]

http://www.avfc.co.uk/page/NewsDetail/0,,10265~3364127,00.html

Villa scratched a seven-year itch to get off to a flying start to their Barclays Premier League campaign.

Denied victory by a late Arsenal equaliser in the first-ever league match at the Emirates Stadium in 2006, Villa kicked off the 2013-14 campaign with a famous victory at the same venue.

Last season's leading scorer Christian Benteke was on target twice to cancel out Olivier Giroud's sixth-minute opener for the Gunners - and visiting fans were over the moon when Antonio Luna marked his debut with a totally unexpected effort four minutes from the end.

There could have been more goals, too. Ashley Westwood forced home keeper Wojciech Szczesny into a spectacular save, while Fabian Delph's stunning low shot thudded off the inside of a post.

Arsenal weren't helped when Laurent Koscielny was sent off for two bookable offences, although the visitors were 2-1 ahead when he was dismissed.

Villa had just begun to settle following an early Gunners onslaught when they were stung by the opening goal.

Tomas Rosicky's pass sent Alex Oxlade-Chamberlain racing clear down the left and the winger cut side before delivering a low cross which Giroud stroked left-footed past the unguarded Brad Guzan from a couple yards.

It was the worst possible start, and there was another problem a couple of minutes later when Nathan Baker required treatment after taking a nasty whack of his foot while clearing from Theo Walcott.

Baker gamely continued but it became increasingly evident that he was struggling and in the 18th minute he was replaced by Ciaran Clark, who was in action almost immediately, getting in the way of a fierce Walcott drive from just outside the penalty area.

But after both Gabby Agbonlahor and Delph had seen left-wing crosses cleared, the visitors were level in the 23rd minute.

Agbonlahor's forceful run took him past two challenges and into the area before he was upended by the advancing Szczesny.

Referee Anthony Taylor immediately pointed to the spot and although Benteke's penalty was saved by Szczesny, the ball looped into the air - and the Belgium international followed up to head home the rebound.

Arsenal were forced to make a substitution just before the half-hour mark, Carl Jenkinson taking over from Kieran Gibbs, who was injured in a clash of heads with Andi Weimann.

The Villa striker also needed treatment, as did Luna, who had earlier taken a blow on the head from Giroud.

Villa were desperately close to a second goal on 37 minutes. Szczeny got himself into trouble when he raced out of the area to clear from Karim El Ahmadi's long ball, and the keeper was still out of position when Westwood floated a shot towards the top corner from 30 yards. But Szczesny redeemed himself by sprinting back to claw the ball away in spectacular fashion.

Villa were relieved when Rosicky lifted his shot well over after playing a one-two with Giroud in the 51st minute, but a couple of minutes later Delph was desperately unlucky not to score his first Barclays Premier League goal.

Creating space for himself 25 yards out, the former Leeds midfielder let fly with a tremendous low left-foot drive which beat Szczesny but struck the inside of the left-hand post, rebounded along the line and went out beyond the far upright.

In the 62nd minute, though, the visitors were in front after Agbonlahor earned another penalty. The club's record Premier League scorer intercepted an Arsenal pass to sprint from the half-way line before being tripped by Koscielny in the penalty area.

This time there was no need for a rebound, Benteke calmly sending his kick low to Szczesny's right as the keeper dived the other way.

Koscielny was booked for the challenge - and a few minutes later the Arsenal centre-back saw red when he was booked for a second foul, this time on Weimann.

Despite being down to 10 men, the Gunners pressed forward strongly, Guzan twice coming to the rescue with vital saves. First the keeper spread himself to block Rosicky's close-range effort, when he turned sub Santi Cazorla's shot against the post.

But after Weimann had seen a shot blocked and Benteke had rolled an angled effort just wide, Luna sealed victory with his coup de grace four minutes from the end.

The Spanish left-back was the last player we expected to see racing clear through the middle when Weimann delivered a perfectly-weighted pass. But he displayed all the composure to drill a low left-foot shot past Szczesny from the edge of the area

[Dante Lavelli]

The hubris, they can wallow in a mire of their own thereabouts mediocrity. At least we know who we are and we took three points today at theirs and they can HAVE THAT!

"At least we know who we are"

What on earth does that mean?

[Big Dick Edwards]

First day of the new season and I've awoken feeling unusually confident of a 3-1 win to Villa.

Did you put money on it?

Unfortunately not.

I watched the whole game and that wasn't a lucky three points. We gave as good as we got in an end to end game. We couldn't have had a more positive mindset, typified by Luna's breakaway goal when we were defending an Arsenal corner!
On a negative note we gave the ball away very cheaply at times which could have cost us dear against a team of Arsenal's quality. All in all though a fantastic effort from the boys.

[Toronto Villa]

I haven't read the match or post match sections of this thread. Been out boating, just saw the score and fucking ecstatic. I'll read this slowly and with joy when time allows. I imagine I'll enjoy it very much.

[Isa]

Not totally surprised but still great to see. Given our upcoming fixtures it was vitally important to get points on the board early. It was a sensible selection from Lambert and the team continue to display the hard-work and spirit that saw us to safety last season. We were fortunate with the second penalty obviously but we made the most of it which is all you can ask.

There were a few negatives: I thought Lambert could've made a change when they went down to 10 men (something like Tonev on for Weimann) to really go for the kill and keep us on the front foot. I think Lambert can be more incisive when it comes to making changes which was something that bugged me at times last season. The amount of times we resorted to hoofing in the first half was slightly disheartening and Vlaar's performance keeps up the uncertainty over our best CB pairing.

Player ratings:

Guzan - 8...As usual he was dominant in the box and made two fantastic saves to keep us 2-1 ahead when we sat back a little. Distribution not great though.

Lowton - 6...Didn't do much wrong although caught out a bit for the first goal.

Vlaar - 5...One of the few negatives really. Most at fault for their goal. Caught out of position on other occasions (the Rosicky chance for example) and awful challenge on Wilshere to get the yellow. Can see him being dropped if he continues with such performances.

Baker - N/A...Is a bit injury prone it would seem.

Clark - 7...Quietly impressive. I'm one of those that had written him off at CB but didn't put a foot wrong today. Fair play to him.

Luna - 8...I'd hate criticised his defensive ability quite severely during pre-season but looked very solid today and generally dealt with Walcott. There was that mishap between him and Guzan which I think was just down to a lack of communication and the yellow card was just a poor decision by the referee. His goal showed what he could do the other end and what a composed finish. Brilliant!

Westwood - 6...So-so. Some nice passes as usual but not great at protecting the backline and just can't tackle without fouling really. His set-piece delivery is poor too. Floated outswingers just do not work really and are a waste of corners. I think Westwood is better with Sylla behind him.

Delph - 8...Another all action performance from him. Covered lots of ground and did more to help out offensively which was encouraging to see. Millimeters away from putting us ahead with a very good effort.

KEA - 9 (MOTM)...Perhaps only started due to Sylla's injury but fully justified Lambert's faith in him. Got stuck in which we haven't really seen yet. Looked comfortable and very incisive in possession also.

Weimann - 6...Not great but worked hard as usual and did produce a delightful ball for Benteke towards the end. His blushes were spared with the first penalty when his place a shot into the side netting. He did seem to lose his composure the back end of last season when he missed quite a few sitters and good chances. Let's hope he regains that clinical nature of his game which was probably his biggest strength previously. I think his place will be under massive threat from Helenius and Tonev.

Agbonlahor - 7...Won the first penalty with a lovely burst of pace and generally provided a threat when he had the opportunity.

Benteke - 8...Finally missed a penalty but put the rebound in anyway. Second penalty was as cool as you like. Looked strong aerially and showed some nice touches. I think his hold-up play could've been better though. He played flick-offs a bit too often which resulted in giving it away at times. Great though to see him get off the mark already. I always thought it was important for him to start the season strongly to truly put the summer saga to bed.

Bacuna - N/A...Only had a few minutes.

Referee watch: Awful really. Taylor made poor decisions, then tried to balance them out with more bad decisions. 

[CJ]

I take it all back, great result!

I take credit for turning off watching it live to follow it on the forum. Couldn't cope with the stress to be honest.

Was Sagna OK in the end?

Sagna looked pretty shaken up but he got to his feet and went off looking reasonably ok - certainly better than I thought he'd be after the way he landed on his neck.

[Dan England]

We have more points after 1 game than I thought we'd have after 3 (thought I was being optimistic with 2!).

Guzan made two unbelievable saves,

Clark and Lowton were solid, Vlaar too easy to commit, Luna had a very solid second half and looked to get forward at every opportunity.

Midfield was very strong, Delph was unlucky not to score, Westwood did what he does very well, KEA Ok.

Wiemann certainly put a lot of running in and always looked to stretch their back four, Gabby was absolutely immense threat, power and pace all rolled into one. Funnily enough I didn't think Benteke did a lot today but one good pen, one not so good but great hunger to follow it in.

I also really like how physical we were. Not a single player got bullied off the ball, pulled out of a 50/50 or stop pressing and pushing. I love the work ethic Lambert has introduced to this squad.

[Archie]

I wonder if a certain someone still thinks Delph is the worst Villa player he has ever seen. Delph is going to massive for us this season and he'll score about half a dozen as well I reckon.

Yes he's hugely improved and can become an outstanding player, the only of the squad that can play box to box.

[Toronto Villa]

Oh and fuck Lawro and his predictions.

[not3bad]

KEA MOM for me, but Delph very close.Forgot Walcott was playing which was testament to Luna.Thought Benteke was top quality, and pleasantly surprised with how well Clark played.

How about Agbonlahor?

[Ron Manager]

Ron was shite,rest of the side good on ya.

Agreed Rosicky made him look like a clueless schoolboy, hopefully he won't come up against many that are as clever as Rosicky this season.

Rosicky looked the big danger. Wiltshire dissapeared for a big part of the game.