Ollie Watkins in 3/10 shocker – Aston Villa player ratings v Arsenal
Aston Villa suffered a 2-0 defeat in their first Premier League home game of the season against Arsenal at Villa Park.
Unai Emery named an unchanged side from the team which defeated West Ham at the London Stadium on the opening weekend, ahead of their first home match of the new Premier League season.
The first half saw chances at a premium, with Villa’s best opportunity coming and going in the blink of an eye for Ollie Watkins, who somehow skewed a 10-yard shot wide of an almost open net.
Villa were made to rue another huge miss from Watkins as they threw numbers forward in the second half, but the visitors soon hit them with a sucker punch as Leandro Trossard made it 1-0.
Thomas Partey popped up 10 minutes later with a low strike from the edge of the box which Emi Martinez had to save, and Emery’s side couldn’t launch a comeback to suffer their defeat of the campaign.
Here’s how Villa News rated each player out of 10 on Saturday (24 August) at Villa Park, with all stats from SofaScore.
Amadou Onana with debut goal for Aston Villa
Emiliano Martinez – 4
Made a fantastic save low down to his right to keep a curling stroke from Saka at bay from just inside the area in the first half. Continued to command his box well and could do nothing about Trossard’s opener, but will be seething after he allowed Partey’s shot to squirm between his fingertips for 2-0. That saw his goals-prevented metric on SofaScore drop to a meagre –0.95.
Matty Cash (off for Kosta Nedeljkovic, 16′) – 6
Started brightly and was willing to get forward down the right, and completed all five of his attempted passes before being forced off with injury just 16 minutes into the contest.
Ezri Konsa – 5
Went toe-to-toe with Arsenal’s attackers, winning four of his five ground duels, and almost opened the scoring with a header across the face of goal which David Raya was nowhere near. As with the rest of his teammates though, was left stranded for both Arsenal goals.
Pau Torres – 4
Didn’t win a single duel in the air and lost possession eight times in total, several of which were from attempted long balls, completing just one from six (17 per cent) and being statuesque in defence for Trossard’s opener.
Lucas Digne (off for Ian Maatsen, 76′) – 5
Made five clearances, four interceptions and two tackles during an entertaining battle with Saka on the flanks, but couldn’t get forward much himself and lost possession eight times before being substituted.
Ollie Watkins the main culprit in wasteful Aston Villa performance
Leon Bailey – 5
Always willing to help Cash and Nedeljkovic out in defence and twice charged all the way back to cut out Arsenal chances as the very last man. Was far less effective with the ball at his feet though, completing just 50 per cent of his 20 attempted passes and being dispossessed a whopping 14 times.
Amadou Onana – 6
Saw an effort deflected off Gabriel and up onto the bar, and headed over from a corner just minutes later. Received a clear-cut yellow card for hacking down Saka on the break, but was otherwise a solid presence in midfield with six of his nine overall duels won.
Youri Tielemans – 7
Kept things ticking over in midfield for Villa with a 93 per cent passing accuracy, and while he put in five tackles and won seven of his 10 ground duel attempts, he offered very little in the final third in support of Watkins and Rogers.
John McGinn – 6
The Villa captain was successful in four of his five ground duels and won four free-kicks in a stop-start first half alone, in a typically industrious performance which was cut short 65 minutes in.
Morgan Rogers – 8
Drove forward alongside Watkins at speed whenever possible and became Villa’s go-to man in attack. Two shots from just inside the box either side of half-time were blocked by the Arsenal defence, producing an xG of 0.14 and completing four of his six attempted dribbles with interim England head coach Lee Carsley watching on.
Ollie Watkins – 3
Guilty of two misses with 0.86 xG behind them which you’d have backed him to put away on every single day of the week. The first saw him drag wide of an open net from right in front, and the second somehow resulted in Raya making a reflex save off the line to keep out the England man’s diving header. Watkins’ general play was also poor, winning just one of six ground duels (17 per cent) and losing possession on nine occasions.
Substitutes:
Kosta Nedeljkovic (on for Matty Cash, 16′) – 5 – Didn’t get forward quite as much as Cash would likely have done, but still won five of his seven ground duels.
Jacob Ramsey (on for John McGinn, 65′) – 5 – Raced in behind the Arsenal defence after a Duran pass opened them up, but Saliba’s intervention did just enough and allowed Raya to save his effort.
Jhon Duran (on for Ollie Watkins, 65′) – 5 – Replaced the wasteful Watkins but couldn’t get much luck himself in front of goal.
Ian Maatsen (on for Lucas Digne, 76′) – N/A
Ross Barkley (on for Amadou Onana, 76′) – N/A
In other Aston Villa news, the club have opened talks with Chelsea for Raheem Sterling as a wage twist emerges.
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