Arsenal pass Villa test and prove why they’re Man City’s main title rivals

Two games are no barometer of a team’s title chances but the early psychological signs are on point for Arsenal as they ended their Aston Villa hoodoo with a result the Gunners of a few years ago could not have hoped to claim.

Under a manager desperate to get one over the only club he hasn’t excelled at, Villa had the chances to make it three consecutive victories over the Gunners, to once again do damage to a title challenge when one defeat can be the difference between a first league title in 20 years and further frustration.

Yet, having weathered an almighty Villainous storm, goals from Leandro Trossard and Thomas Partey left limbs flailing everywhere in the away end at Villa Park on Saturday, signalling an ultimate statement of intent, while putting a recent, damaging run of bad luck to rest.

Villa effectively cost Arsenal the title last season. This incarnation of Manchester City do not allow much margin for error, with the April home loss to Villa at the Emirates the difference between a first league title in two decades and another year of hurt.

The Gunners, however, are just there, mentally. Arsenal had won 17 of 19 games this calendar year coming into Saturday’s contest; in Football League history, the most wins by a side in their first 20 matches in a year is 18, won by Liverpool in 1982 and Man City in both 2019 and 2021.

On the road, they have been near perfect in 2024 winning eight of their nine Premier League away games so far, scoring 28 goals, conceding three and keeping seven clean sheets prior to their trip to the Midlands.

They appeared set to continue to be as unrelenting on the road as Elvis after making a blistering start at Villa Park, with Bukayo Saka denied by a superb save from Emiliano Martinez, who celebrated the stop against his former employers with typical gusto.

Villa are not the Gunners’ recent bogey team without reason, however, and soon settled into the contest. The hosts should have taken the lead in the 24th minute, but England last-gasp hero Ollie Watkins somehow contrived to miss the target with the goal at his mercy.

Morgan Rogers, playing in a free role off Watkins, was causing Arsenal all kinds of problems. He was bouncing off challenges like Jonah Lomu against bewildered Pacific Islanders, but lacked a killer end product.

Watkins’s radar remained off course early in the second half as he headed too close to David Raya when reacting first to Amadou Onana’s effort coming down off the crossbar. The Holte End rose as one, sure the net was about to bulge, but Raya’s reflexes denied them.

The chances kept coming for Villa, with Ezri Konsa then just missing the post. Villa’s moment had passed.

Any title-winning team needs something game-changing off the bench – where would Manchester United have been without Ole Gunnar Solskjaer – and Arsenal found their salvation in Trossard once more. Six of the Belgium international’s 14 Premier League goals for Arsenal have been as a substitute, the highest share of any player to score 10 or more goals for the club in the competition.

Partey’s second was less emphatic, squirming a strike under the despairing dive of Martinez to seal the win 10 minutes later, but no less crucial.

The celebrations began in the Arsenal away end. Even this early in the season, the manner of the victory echoed title-winners of yesteryear. Villa will feel hard done by, but Arsenal’s resilience, in the face of adversity is to be admired. They are going to go the distance, it is just whether Manchester City will stay with them.