Arsenal title bid suffers blow after squandering two goal lead at home to Aston Villa

Arsenal's Leandro Trossard reacts to a missed chance in injury time. Pic: Zac Goodwin/PA Wire.

Arsenal 2 Aston Villa 2

UNAI EMERY effectively masterminded the end of his former side’s title hopes when they were the last side to win a Premier League match here in April.

This time the Spanish coach can take little credit for derailing Arsenal as it was former Gunners keeper Emi Martinez who denied them after the hosts collapsed from a deserved two-goal second-half lead.

Goals either side of half-time from Gabriel Martinelli and Kai Havertz seemed to have set Arsenal up for a deserved routine win.

Then Villa hit back with two quick goals from crosses as Youri Tielemans and Ollie Watkins took full advantage of a toothless Arsenal defence bereft of injured key defender William Saliba.

Arsenal have a 74% win rate with Saliba and only 45% without him. Both Villa goals were scored in territory he would normally have occupied to clear.

The only statistic that matters, however, is that Arsenal dropped two points on a day leaders Liverpool salvaged an injury-time win at Brentford and will now have a nine-point lead over the north London pretenders if they win their game in hand.

Martinez made a series of stunning stops in time added on as Arsenal desperately pressed for a late winner to salvage their Premier League season.

Villa were also saved by a VAR decision to deny Mikel Merino a late winner after it deflected in off an accidental Havertz handball.

Martinelli maintained his good recent form to put Arsenal ahead with a close-range finish after 35 minutes. 

Arsenal were going for it knowing they had little or nothing on the bench to bring on should they need a late goal. And they deservedly doubled their lead through a sublime Havertz finish ten minutes into the second half.

They then proceeded to give it all away with some shocking defending. Merino was found wanting as he tried to prevent Tielemans from pulling one back in the 68th minute.

At first, it looked like an own goal. Then monents later Havertz got underneath a cross and allowed the ball to sail clear to Watkins to finish with a well-taken volley.

There were chances aplenty for Arsenal to get back and win the match, but as they have shown so many times this season, they lacked the quality to finish off their hard-earned goalscoring opportunities.

Arsenal: Raya 6; Partey 6, Timber 6, Gabriel 6, Lewis-Skelly 7; Rice 8, Merino 6, Odegaard 6; Martinelli 8 (Sterling 81), Havertz 7, Trossard 6.

Subs not used: Neto, Tierney, Zinchenko, Kiwior, Kacurri, Jorginho, Butler-Oyedeji, Kabia.

Aston Villa: Martinez 6, Cash 6, Konsa 6, Mings 6, Maatsen 5 (Digne 46), Onana 6 (Bogarde 37), Kamara 6, Rogers 6, Tielemans 7, Ramsey 6 (Bailey 84), Watkins 6 (Duran 80).

Subs not used: Olsen, Gauci, Nedeljkovic, Buendia, Bailey, Malen.

Referee: Chris Kavanagh 5.

Attendance: 60,067.