“Spend some money,” the Arsenal fans urged as the final minutes played out to a sheet of watery sunshine. There was another word in there, of course, for Arsenal fans are a quite apoplectic bunch these days. They howled at Arsène Wenger. They howled at the directors’ box. They howled at the referee, Anthony Taylor. By the end, any outlet would do for their anger.
In the end, Taylor proved the perfect scapegoat. He did have a poor game, all things told, and it was the soft penalty he awarded after an hour, Aston Villa’s second – that effectively turned the game on its head. Christian Benteke scored it, Laurent Koscielny earned a harsh booking, and when he was sent off for another a few minutes later, Arsenal were essentially cooked.
The irony was that Arsenal actually played quite well, unless you count the three goals they conceded. They were rocked by injuries at crucial moments. Bacary Sagna and Kieran Gibbs both went off clutching their heads, and Koscielny’s red card meant Arsenal finished the game with two defenders on the pitch. And one of them was Carl Jenkinson. Villa were rough and gritty. Fabian Delph and Karim El Ahmadi did their jobs perfectly, abetted by Taylor, and left plenty of bruises. There were 10 yellow cards in total.
So Arsenal were a little unfortunate, but there are still issues within their squad that a few blank cheques over the next fortnight will not necessarily fix. A new striker would have added nothing on Saturday. Olivier Giroud was magnificent, scoring one goal, creating at least two clear opportunities for his team-mates, winning everything in the air and generally out-Benteke-ing Benteke.
Benteke was fairly ordinary, in truth, but then the idea of Christian Benteke has always outpaced the reality of Christian Benteke by several stages. Wary of his bulk, cognisant of his reputation, Villa dropped back, giving Villa’s midfield space in which to break.
Arsenal opened the scoring. Gibbs burst down the left, crossed low, Giroud slipped in between Antonio Luna and Nathan Baker and glanced the ball past Brad Guzan. The Emirates erupted in delight and optimism. Surely this was going to be their year. The sun was going to come out and Wenger was going to spend £100 million this week and look, even Giroud scored...
The reverie lasted for 15 minutes. Delph nudged the ball past Koscielny, nudged the ball past Wojciech Szczesny, tumbled over the challenge he knew was coming, and a penalty was awarded. Szczesny, who was lucky to escape with a yellow card, saved Benteke’s penalty with his right wrist. But the ball looped back towards Benteke, who headed the ball home from five yards as Szczesny tried desperately to scramble to his feet.
Gibbs and Andreas Weimann clashed heads. Gibbs went off mopping blood from his brow, and was replaced by Jenkinson. Sagna went to left-back, meaning Arsenal now had two right-footers on that flank.
Thus did a pretty game turn into an ugly one. Jack Wilshere was brought down by Ron Vlaar and was himself booked for a retaliatory shove. El Ahmadi piled into Tomas Rosicky, a tackle that Taylor did not see but Wenger certainly did. Benteke laid the ball off to Delph, whose low left-footed shot hit the post and scuttled along the goal line.
The pivotal moment came after an hour when Benteke burst clear, Koscielny slid in and won the ball, and a penalty was awarded. Not that winning the ball is the be-all and end-all of these things, but it was not a dangerous challenge by Koscielny. Indeed, when he turned round to see Taylor pointing at the spot, Koscielny’s first reaction was to laugh. Benteke put Villa ahead.
Koscielny’s second yellow five minutes later, a clearer yellow card for a late challenge on Benteke, sealed Arsenal’s fate. The third came as Arsenal chased an equaliser, Luna going renegade and latching on to Ashley Westwood’s through ball to tuck the ball past Szczesny.
Guzan saved from the substitute Santi Cazorla and the outstanding Tomas Rosicky, but Villa were home and dry. The boos rang out at full-time: not weary, mournful boos, but a cacophony of anger and bewilderment and sheer, bloody impotence. Arsenal were unlucky here, but they didn’t half take it badly.
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