Aston Villa vs Arsenal: Saka's goal helps the Gunners win 1-0 and solidify fourth spot

Bukayo Saka’s first-half strike helped Arsenal edge past Aston Villa at Villa Park on Saturday. The Gunners came into the match on the back of a 2-0 loss to Liverpool and desperately needed a victory to maintain the four points lead over fifth-placed Manchester United. Mikel Arteta’s side were without goalkeeper Aaron Ramsdale because of a hip injury but his replacement Bernd Leno did a fine between the sticks and the Gunners maintained their defensive solidity throughout the 90 minutes, Villa managed to register only one shot on target.

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A ??????? three points in the hunt for top four!

? 0-1 ? (FT)#AVLARS pic.twitter.com/3JV1BB3wX6

— Arsenal (@Arsenal) March 19, 2022

Arsenal started the game on the driving seat, repeatedly winning the ball back around halfway and keeping it impressively. Early in the match, Emile Smith Rowe blasted over from Martin Odegaard’s assist before Villa keeper Emiliano Martinez made the first save of the match from Thomas Partey’s effort. And then, Martinez was called into action once again when Saka’s cross was chested by Villa defender Konsa and would have gone inside the goal, but Martinez tipped it wide.

The Gunners deservedly took the lead on the half-hour mark when Cedric’s long ball was headed down towards the path of Saka, whose half-volley found a way though a number of players, past Martinez and into the back of the net.

The English winger has now been involved in six goals in his last five Premier League games. And it was his ninth league goal of the season. Meanwhile it was Arsenal’s 2000th Premier League goal. 

The visitors were given too much space and it was pretty easy for them to keep the ball possession in the attacking areas. Left-back Ashley Young needed help from Philippe Coutinho and Emi Buendia had just two touches in the opposition box. 

It was not until the hour-mark that Villa threatened a goal as John McGinn latched onto a mistake from Odegaard but fired his shot wide of Bernd Leno’s left-hand post. Arsenal continued to play better football as a mesmeric control by Saka from Partey’s pass helped him get past Young before firing just wide. 

It was a big win for us: Arteta

Although the Gunners had the majority of ball possession and played some fluid football they were not able to put Villa away. Gerard turned to reinforcement with Bertrand Traore and Leon Bailey introduced, but it failed to make a difference. 

Arsenal held on to the slender lead to take all three points, move to 54 points from 28 games, and solidify fourth spot.  Villa have now lost 10 of 12 games against teams above them in the division this term, so it is a measure of how far they still need to progress under Steven Gerrard.

Arsenal boss Arteta said: “It’s a very big win for us. I thought we played fantastically well, but we didn’t put the game to bed when we had the chances. Then you suffer, but we showed the resilience to win.

“Villa are a very good team and to come here is always extremely difficult. We managed to do the things we wanted to do in the match and I think we deserved to win the game.”