We recently published an article stating that Aston Villa could be pivotal to Arsenal and Manchester City‘s title hopes. And Villa may have just impacted the Premier League title race by defeating City 1-0, in a game in which City boss Pep Guardiola side were totally dominated by the Villans.
Guardiola rarely admits that his team was second-best and that things did not go his way. He didn’t say that when Arsenal beat him 1-0 in the league not long ago, and he also didn’t say it when his club drew 1-1 with Liverpool. However, he admitted that Villa were the better team on Wednesday night, describing them as a well-organized team whose game is fast.
“The better team won,” he said on Manchester City’s website. “Aston Villa was better than us. They are well organised, fast, and [have] physical players and team and they are able to control many aspects.
“That is the reason why they are up there, playing good football, and we could not do it. It’s my duty, my job to find the way to come back.
“I give credit to Aston Villa, first of all. They do it. The first half, we struggled to follow what we spoke [about].
“[We said] something at halftime, [and] it was much better; the team had another dynamic, but we didn’t find the players to make the assist, the cross, the pass.
“We arrive there, but we didn’t have the feeling that ‘oh, we are going to do something’. And we miss it.”
Guardiola’s words may be meaningless to some, but for Arsenal fans, they suggest Villa may be their toughest challenge this season. His statements may imply that if Arsenal can defeat Villa, there will be no other team standing in their way. Prior to City’s losing to Villa on Wednesday night, I suppose Arsenal would have been content with not dropping points against them, but things changed after Villa defeated the reigning champions.
Arsenal now has a point to prove; they must demonstrate that they can function without Arteta on the touchline (he’s banned for that game), that their good run this season, only losing once over the last 15 league games, is a reflection of how good they are, and that losing to Newcastle was simply bad luck (and officials!).
A win versus Villa will plainly demonstrate Arsenal’s desire for the title and what they are ready to do to achieve it after disappointingly missing out on it last season.
Sam P
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