Even before August is over, the story of a season that begins without respite and everyone is still doing their thing is already beginning to be written on the English fields. Haaland scores three in three for the champions, Manchester United does not stop crashing and Arsenal is breaking stone to celebrate vibrant victories. There was a lot of epic in the victory (0-2) of the gunners At Villa Park, a long-awaited revenge for what it means to beat the same team that frustrated them last season in the two direct meetings. Those defeats took Arsenal away from the top of the table, so there was an outstanding score to settle. Arteta against Emery and Emery against the team that took him to the Premier League and in which he did not settle. The resolution with goals from Trossard and Thomas decided a game of effort and tension, even in tensions on the winning side because the Belgian winger did not want to celebrate the goal that led the fight to his team. Arteta had left him on the bench and it seemed that the decision did not please him one bit.
0
Emiliano Martínez, Pau Torres, Lucas Digne (Ian Maatsen, min. 75), Matty Cash (Kosta Nedeljkovic, min. 15), Ezri Konsa, Amadou Onana (Ross Barkley, min. 75), John McGinn (Jacob Ramsey, min. 64), Youri Tielemans, Leon Bailey, Morgan Rogers and Ollie Watkins (Jhon Durán, min. 64)
2
David Raya, Gabriel Magalhães, Jurriën Timber (Riccardo Calafiori, min. 79), William Saliba, Ben White, Thomas Partey, Martin Ødegaard, Declan Rice, Bukayo Saka (Reiss Nelson, min. 87), Gabriel Martinelli (Leandro Trossard, min. .64) and Kai Havertz
Goals
0-1 min. 66: Trossard. 0-2 min. 76: Thomas
Referee Michael Oliver
Declan Rice (min. 48), Gabriel (min. 56), Amadou Onana (min. 71), Odegaard (min. 88)
Arsenal also won when things were going badly. They controlled the situation from the start, with the ball and without excessive pressure on the defence, apart from a knot created by the central defender Gabriel under the pressure of the opposition and which provided a goal-scoring opportunity that the English international Watkins missed in an incredible way. The man, who had his sights off course, did not finish the match, replaced by Emery after a succession of misfortunes. It was, without a doubt, a game of goalkeepers. Dibu Martínez showed himself with an excellent save at the start of the match, a strong hand that sent a low shot from Saka to the corner.
But above all, it was David Raya who left his mark, making a prodigious save to deny Watkins a goal with the score tied at 0-0. The Spanish goalkeeper responded to a shot that was deflected by a defender and hit the crossbar and landed on the line. Watkins was almost on top of him, and he rushed to finish at the net, but was met by a feline. Raya looked like the best Casillas, all reflexes to block the goal. It was a blow for Villa, a spur for Arsenal, in which Arteta intervened to give minutes to the disgruntled Trossard, who redeemed himself as soon as he came on to the field, already on the 66th minute.
The goal damaged Villa, who had played their best football since returning from the break and were exhausted by a lack of aim and attacking intentions that exposed them. Ten minutes after Trossard, it was Thomas, who seems to be back to his best form, who decided the game with a shot that he placed with his inside from the edge of the box. Perhaps the Dibu could have responded better. That response will remain pending for the second round, for a new duel in a tie that already seems to be a classic.
More mundane was Manchester City’s 4-1 win over Ipswich, in which there were minutes (around twenty) for the returning Gündogan and Haaland is getting closer to matching his goal tally (94) with his number of matches (101) with the team his father once defended. The Norwegian was at the heart of a voracious response from the champions to an early goal from Ipswich. He took the centre and scored three goals in four minutes, with Savinho also playing a leading role, first by forcing a penalty and then by stealing the ball from the visitors’ goalkeeper and giving an assist to De Bruyne to build the comeback. On the other hand, their neighbours Manchester United are not getting off to a good start, defeated in Brighton in the last play of the match (2-1) after a catastrophic defence that left two strikers alone at the far post. Ten Hag will not have it easy, who started the match with Bruno Fernandes as number nine.
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