Arsenal battled past a stuffy Aston Villa 1-0 at Birmingham on Monday to maintain their winning start to the Premier League. Bukayo Saka's 59th-minute goal proved decisive.
The win was hard-fought for the reigning champion. It leaves Arsenal joint top of the table, one of four teams with six points from two games. Villa, meanwhile, are pointless and, more worryingly for coach Unai Emery, have yet to register a shot on target.
More than half of the players who started Villa's Europa Cup win in May have since left the club, leaving Emery with a daunting rebuild. Two of his new signings started against Arsenal: Nicolas Jackson took the striker's role, and Zion Suzuki replaced goalkeeper Emiliano Martinez.
Villa began busily, with Emiliano Buendia cracking a long-range effort against the bar. But Arsenal came into the game as the half wore on and ended the better of the two sides without really threatening Suzuki, who made history by becoming the first Japanese goalkeeper to play in the Premier League.
That pattern continued in the second half. Arsenal thought they had a penalty nine minutes in when Ian Maatsen felled Saka, but the award was downgraded to a free kick after a video review. Saka was not to be stopped, though. With almost an hour gone, he bundled home from close range after neat interplay between Eberechi Eze and Riccardo Calafiori.
Neither side managed to dominate the match, and clear-cut chances were few.
Source: www.newsday.com — Read the original article
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