Analysis: Stirring Arsenal fightback demonstrates why it's dangerous to write Aston Villa off

After 55 minutes at Arsenal on Saturday you thought you’d seen the reason keeping pace with the likes of Newcastle, Chelsea and yes, Bournemouth (do not adjust your newspaper) would prove beyond them. Namely, they just can’t get a result away from home against any decent standard opposition.

Then 13 minutes later, you’re back believing again. Ollie Watkins sends a volley in off the bar and in what feels like the blink of an eye Unai Emery’s team have erased a two-goal deficit.

They might not have ultimately gone on to claim victory and become the first visiting team to win in the Premier League at the Emirates Stadium since they themselves achieved the feat more than nine months ago. 

But in a season which has seen a few too many points slip away, this was one snatched back from opponents who thought they were making off with all three when Gabriel Martinelli and Kai Havertz put them into a 2-0 lead.

For the second season running they dented the Gunners’ title aspirations. Emery, unbeaten in three trips back to the club who sacked him in 2019, remains a nuisance in N7.

The Spaniard’s focus is now entirely on Villa and this draw kept his team firmly in the mix, just two points behind Newcastle after taking eight points from four matches since that bruising 3-0 Boxing Day defeat on Tyneside. Coming right on the back of last week’s 1-0 win at Everton, which snapped a five-match losing run away from home in the Premier League, this again seemed evidence of a corner turned.

Throw in the fact this was the first time since 2013 Villa had come from two goals down to take something on the road and it is even easier to understand why this was a draw which felt very much like a win.

True, Villa were some way from perfect. You might wonder what might have happened had they not been so puzzlingly passive through the first 55 minutes, against a Gunners team missing several key players including, most notably, centre-back William Saliba.

But you cannot quibble with their character. When Havertz made it 2-0, it was beginning to look like an exercise in damage limitation, yet Villa came roaring back.

Their spirit was epitomised by the two goalscorers. Youri Tielemans simply showed greater alertness and hunger than Mikel Merino when he went tearing past the Arsenal midfielder and into the box to meet Lucas Digne’s pinpoint cross with a diving header and score his first Premier League goal of the season.

Barely a minute later, Tielemans almost had another, his right-footed shot clattering against the base of the post but while Villa would have to wait a little longer for the leveller, momentum had turned.

Those weren’t the only eye-catching moments from Tielemans, a player who while decent enough in his first season at the club, always felt a little on the fringes when compared to the likes of Douglas Luiz and John McGinn. This term the Belgium international has firmly emerged from the shadows and there were times in the second half on Saturday when he appeared to be pulling the rest of the Villa team with him.

In Watkins, meanwhile, Villa have their own Mr Inevitable. The equaliser, a side-footed volley from Matty Cash’s left-footed cross, was his 10th Premier League goal of the season and he has now hit double figures in all five of his top flight campaigns.

It felt entirely fitting Watkins scored while Jhon Duran stood on the sidelines waiting to replace him. The latter’s sometimes breathtaking brilliance means Watkins’ efforts have at times been overshadowed and in truth, the 29-year-old would be the first to admit his season has not yet hit the heights of last. 

Yet there have been signs, certainly in the last month, he is returning to his best. Saturday’s goal made it three in his last four Premier League outings and the aim of becoming the first Villa striker since Peter Withe to net 20 in a top flight season feels very much on. This equaliser followed last Wednesday’s winner at Everton and though Watkins missed good chances in the first halves of both matches, he has never been the type to go into hiding. When Villa really need a goal, he is typically the man to deliver.

With Duran still top scorer in all competitions with 12 goals, the lingering question is whether the pair can play together? Watkins posed it himself during a post-match interview, while Emery even conceded he might have been tempted to try it on Saturday had Arsenal not posed such a threat in attack. Only twice have Duran and Watkins started the same match and both of those came last season.

The next occasion could well be tomorrow’s Champions League clash with Monaco, where Emery will have plenty of options in attack but little elsewhere, a hamstring injury suffered by Amadou Onana on Saturday adding further to the current shortages in midfield and defence.

Onana was replaced by youngster Lamare Bogarde, who performed well and was involved in the build-up to Villa’s first goal which sparked the comeback.

Two goals in eight minutes, which followed two in five during the recent FA Cup win over West Ham, suggests a team which plays in fits and spurts yet for now, in the top half of the Premier League, Villa are refusing to be edged out of the picture.