Ollie Watkins brace sinks hapless Arsenal at home


Ollie Watkins brace sinks hapless Arsenal at home
Ollie Watkins has scored 5 goals against Liverpool and Arsenal together

Bukayo Saka scored an own goal as Ollie Watkins scored two to sink Arsenal at the Emirates Stadium. Mikel Arteta’s men had no answer to any of Aston Villa’s attacks as their defense crumbled. Alexandre Lacazette and Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang endured another frustrating evening. Thomas Partey was subbed off with a thigh injury, complicating Arsenal’s misery.

Match Report

Aston Villa hit the ground running as they had the ball in the net in within a minute by John McGinn. However a check by VAR showed that Ross Barkley was offside and was blocking Bernd Leno’s view. This respite didn’t last for long as Arsenal’s defense was too weak against a marauding Aston Villa. In the 25th minute Arsenal’s Bukayo Saka turned in Matt Targett’s cross into his own net. The first half ended with a whimper as Arsenal lost Thomas Partey to a thigh injury. Alexandre Lacazette missed a header from range as he found himself in 7 yards of the goal.

One man made an excellent prediction seven hours before the match ended!

The second half wasn’t any different for Arteta’s men as they continued to play laboriously. In what was a first, Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang played terribly and had zero shots on target. This performance of his seemed to have been worse than his performance against Liverpool two years back as he just had 13 touches all match- with five of them coming from the kick-off area.

FS Video

In two minutes of brilliant football, Ollie Watkins scored a brace with assists from Ross Barkley and Jack Grealish. This assist took the latter to 9 G/A, third behind Tottenham’s Harry Kane and Son Heung-Min. Ross Barkley looks reinvented at Aston Villa as he is in fine form since his debut against Liverpool. Aston Villa have now beaten two of the top 6 in emphatic fashion with 7 and 3 against Liverpool and Arsenal respectively.

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