Arsenal looked solid at the back yet again as winger Bukayo Saka secured all three points in a 1-0 victory away at Aston Villa in the Premier League on Monday night.
The Villans looked much improved after their 4-0 drubbing at the hands of Brighton and Hove Albion in their opening game of the season.
Despite new signing Christos Tzolis impressing in the Gunners’ 3-0 victory over Coventry in Gameweek one, he was subbed at half-time after being booked and looking progressively erratic before he left the field.
‘A great squad performance’
“Really happy. A massive win,” Arsenal boss Mikel Arteta told Sky Sports.
“A tough place to come and earn the three points. We deserved it. A great squad performance – because when 11 wasn’t enough the finishers came in and did a magnificent job to finish off the game.
“Last year we lost here in a really difficult way, with the last kick of the game. And that was still in the tummy,” Arteta added.
“We are in the second game and it’s like, ‘we have to win this game!’
“We know that last year was the same. We know the level, we know how difficult it is for every team to earn points in this league, so we have to be really proud tonight.”
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Aiming to rebuild
“We’ve lost. We competed well. We are trying to rebuild the team but [there is] a lot of positive things after the result,” Aston Villa boss Unai Emery said optimistically of his side.
“How we compete defensively, with the ball. We didn’t create clear chances but we didn’t concede clear chances. It was so equal, the match.
“Some players made their debut, fantastic. Suzuki, Jackson both do very good work. The first step forward, Today is positive for the next matches.
“To lose one match is painful but after we must try to get positive things.
“This is the reason I am being optimistic. There are 38 matches, we played two matches and didn’t achieve points but hopefully we can get better.”
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