Full report:
Emi Buendia stuns Arsenal with last kick of game to blow title race open
Aston Villa 2 Arsenal 1: Argentinian scores dramatic winner after chaotic scramble to cut lead to Mikel Arteta’s side to two points at Premier League summit
December 6 2025, The Sunday Times
One last cross to defend, one more block to make, one more save, one last storm to weather — or so it seemed. Arsenal did this all and still Aston Villa kept coming. Arsenal threw bodies at the ball, bodies on the floor, and still there was no let up from Unai Emery’s ferocious, persistent and hungry team.
Villa pushed a further time. David Raya had stopped Youri Tielemans’ near-post flick and Jurrien Timber had blocked Emi Buendía’s follow-up and then Timber and Declan Rice had flung themselves in the way of a Boubacar Kamara shot.
But the ball ran loose and there was Buendía, a sudden pillar of ice amid the fire. Coolly, expertly, he curled a shot through a gap and over a flailing Raya to win the game. The clock showed 93:59 — one more second and Arsenal would have made it to the end of the four minutes of stoppage time.
At last we had a victor. And a title race. Buendía beat his chest, Emery uppercut the air, Villa’s substitutes were on the pitch and Mikel Arteta bowed his head. It was Arsenal’s first defeat since August and Villa, with nine wins in ten, are on their best league run since 1919.
Miraculously, a side who were 19th and winless going into the final weekend of September are only three points off the top. Contenders? Of course. Any side led by Emery, any unit that can sow chaos in opponents as well-drilled as Arsenal cannot be underestimated. Though Emery played things down. “After 15 matches it’s very difficult,” he said. “We are not contenders. If we are still [in the race] in game 35 then maybe I can speak about it.”
Arteta disagreed. He believes Villa are a genuine threat and spoke about Arsenal using the lessons from this game to “get better” and go again. But what were those? In the past, the questions have been about the team’s character but those seemed redundant watching the extraordinary levels of sweat, and resilience, and excellence of Rice, Timber and Raya in the face of Villa’s late onslaught.
This is also a side that has survived going behind at Stamford Bridge, the Stadium of Light and St James’ Park without losing and Arteta’s acumen is not in doubt. After all, his half-time changes here brought Arsenal back when they were trailing and if there are doubts they involve that old chestnut: Arteta’s attitude to risk.
Now Martin Odegaard is back, rather predictably he has shunted Eberechi Eze out to the left again, neutering his most creative and spontaneous player. And a late substitution here will come under scrutiny. In the 86th minute Leandro Trossard, having come on as a sub to score, was removed with Gabriel Martinelli introduced. The idea seemed to be to defend and use Martinelli on counterattacks. Well, with Villa’s final, decisive push coming down Martinelli’s side on the left, and Arsenal’s desire to hang deep inviting Villa on, it backfired.
Arteta said he was following a pre-game plan to limit the minutes of Trossard, who has an issue with his calf, and another old chestnut — injuries — threaten Arsenal too. William Saliba is on the brink of coming back but Gabriel remains absent and Arteta revealed Cristhian Mosquera will be out “for weeks” with an ankle knock sustained against Brentford in midweek.
Another headache is having to play Villa again in just 24 days’ time. Emery is a dark, brooding, righteous stick of kryptonite to the club who dumped him in 2019. He has faced Arsenal ten times as a manager, losing only twice, and Arteta has a worse record against just one Premier League manager: Arne Slot.
Emery’s final substitution was to replace a defender, Matty Cash, with an attacker, Buendía, and it proved decisive. The most impressive thing of all about Villa was how, having dominated the first half but been hit by Arsenal’s blitz at the start of the second, they summoned the belief, energy and clear thinking to fix a few glitches, increase the intensity themselves, and regain control.
Their xG was by far the highest conceded by Arsenal this season and but for a series of Raya saves, the remarkable efforts of Rice, Timber and Piero Hincapié — and Arsenal riding their luck — their second goal would have come sooner. Albeit Arsenal had opportunities too but Odegaard twice went close and Bukayo Saka had a shot blocked by Kamara.
Saka and Morgan Rogers were outstanding, at times unplayable in their different ways. And for Villa, Ollie Watkins was typically game — showing intent from the early minutes when he chased on to John McGinn’s pass to beat Hincapié, hold off Timber and make himself a chance — though he shot straight at Raya.
Saka had Arsenal’s first properly threatening effort, when he drifted into a pocket to collect an Odegaard pass and lash a drive which Emi Martínez could only parry. Odegaard collected, recycled, and from the cross Saka’s header drifted wide.
Rogers kept finding spaces, collecting the ball and driving at the box with his rugby league player’s build yet street footballer’s control. In the 36th minute he kept possession inside Arsenal’s area with skilful touches and Villa developed their move patiently before Tielemans found Rogers, who found Amadou Onana, who spread to Pau Torres.
Arsenal’s left flank was a weakness, with Eze and Riccardo Calafiori leaving spaces for Cash, and Torres whipped a cross — helped on by Timber — into the area behind Eze where Cash, his body position and ball contact perfect, smashed a fabulous volley through Raya’s legs for 1-0.
Ben White and Rice spurned chances before half-time and Arteta used it to introduce Viktor Gyokeres and Trossard for Mikel Merino and Eze. Trossard, with his desire to run behind rather than come to the ball, presented Cash a new problem and Arsenal’s pressing structure was better. They raised their intensity too and for a short period overwhelmed Villa.
During it, they were wining every duel, and Rice snapped into a tackle with Onana, emerging with the ball and finding Saka who played to Odegaard and overlapped. Odegaard fed him and Martínez pushed Saka’s centre into the path of Trossard, who finished emphatically. But Villa weren’t done. Under Emery they seldom are.
