First Thoughts: Aston Villa vs Arsenal

My raw reaction on the final whistle to Arsenal's visit to Villa Park

Going through my big picture thoughts, some positives, and some negatives.

Main Takeaway: Get ready to second guess everything

When you see your team have one of the worst performances of the season and there are a number of key moments leading up and in the match, it is set up to go through the decisions and question if they were right.

• Was the starting lineup right?

• Were the subs right?

• Did Arteta make the right in game tweaks?

• Has the team rotated enough?

• Did the team make the right decisions in the squad building?

This is fine and normal after a loss. I can’t help asking and over analyzing a few of these myself here in the post-match frustration. Let’s run through these and get some quick thoughts on them.

I woke up just a few minutes before kickoff so I didn’t have time to pre-register my view on the starting lineup but when I saw it, it raised my eyebrows. Arteta had to make a double change at halftime, so it is a bit of a concession that it didn’t really work here.

The halftime subs looked to spark things right but what about the ones after that? What about the moves that weren’t made? It is going to be something that will go under the microscope for sure. Taking Saka off is always going to be controversial and that is one where after he came off Arsenal managed just one more shot after starting to look like they were building some pressure.

There are a lot of things that we don’t know about the fitness of the players and have to take guesses on but that’s going to be a question. The momentum of the game was already starting to shift before the sub, but it felt like it totally was killed with him off the field after having one of his better games this season.

Maybe I am not smart enough but what else could have or should have been done here is not easy for me to really make heads or tails of. Bringing on Norgaard? Nah not for me, here. Maybe have Myles come on earlier for Calafiori? Yeah maybe.

Overall, it is just one that feels like it was written in the stars a bit. Aston Villa have been flying, but they had been flying in the most Unai Emrey way possible where they were defying gravity. That of course means that they will just have one of their best overall matches and be the thorn in the side of Arsenal trying to win a title.

Aston Villa is a team that just causes problems for Arsenal and it strikes again here. Since Arteta has taken charge of Arsenal, he has faced Aston Villa 12 times and it is now 5 wins, 1 draw, and 6 losses.

That is just a brutal return.

It has also been one where the types of losses have felt different each time. There have been the frustrating footballings, there have been the physical midblock matches that throw Arsenal off and then this one, which was a game of total chaos and no control.

This match is an incredible outlier for what the season has been and what Arsenal have built their reputation on. Hopefully this is a one off and just an aberration that we can bounce back from. Good reminder that it’s never easy here.

Today will probably be a good day to turn off the social media notifications and try to figure out a way to find some positives. I think that there will be some important things to try and learn from this match, but it will probably take a bit of time and space here before we are all ready to come back to this one.

Positives: