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Aston Villa v Arsenal: 3 things learned as Arsenal suffer back-to-back losses

By Megan Garbutt

BIRMINGHAM, ENGLAND - FEBRUARY 06: Ollie Watkins of Aston Villa scores his team's first goal past Mat Ryan of Arsenal during the Premier League match between Aston Villa and Arsenal at Villa Park on February 06, 2021 in Birmingham, England. Sporting stadiums around the UK remain under strict restrictions due to the Coronavirus Pandemic as Government social distancing laws prohibit fans inside venues resulting in games being played behind closed doors. (Photo by Catherine Ivill/Getty Images)
BIRMINGHAM, ENGLAND - FEBRUARY 06: Ollie Watkins of Aston Villa scores his team's first goal past Mat Ryan of Arsenal during the Premier League match between Aston Villa and Arsenal at Villa Park on February 06, 2021 in Birmingham, England. Sporting stadiums around the UK remain under strict restrictions due to the Coronavirus Pandemic as Government social distancing laws prohibit fans inside venues resulting in games being played behind closed doors. (Photo by Catherine Ivill/Getty Images) /
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2. Arsenal can’t afford to lose focus

Arsenal
Ollie Watkins of Aston Villa (Photo by Nick Potts – Pool/Getty Images) /

Aston Villa are a very organised team and each player knows their role in the squad and I think that is what separated the two sides today. Villa pressed the Gunners for the whole 90 minutes and even when Arsenal had the ball, their back line especially were there to put in every important tackle and make every important block and clearance. whenever Arsenal got forward.

In the first half especially, Arsenal sat back and couldn’t handle the press from Villa and you could see at points that the defence couldn’t handle their attacking threat. This is shown in the build-up to the Ollie Watkins goal, where Cedric loses the ball to start the attack and Rob Holding doesn’t put himself in the right position to make a block and deny the 25-year old.

Arsenal have a tendency to pick up much more in the second half and against clubs like Villa, who are near them in the table, you can’t afford to sit back and hope you eventually get forward and score goals, you have to press them as much as they press you, in order to get the most out of the chances you create.

Arsenal have proved that when they start a game with fire and meaningful football, they can win games, but when you come out and don’t play with pace or accuracy from the start, you’re going to struggle to get back into the game and you start to rely on the other teams to make mistakes that you can capitalise on.

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