Emi Buendia came off the bench and scored the winning goal in the 95th minute Aston Villa And the hand Arsenal Only their second defeat this season.
The Argentine international player showed great poise to shoot into the roof of the goal after Arsenal’s defense repelled the efforts of Youri Tielemans, Buendia himself, and Boubacar Kamara.
It looked as if another substitute, Arsenal’s Leandro Trossard, would be the headline-maker after coming off the bench in the first half to cancel out Matty Cash’s first-half opener.
Trossard missed Arsenal’s last two matches after sustaining an injury against Bayern Munich, but he replaced the ineffective Eberechi Eze in the second half and quickly made his mark, striking the far post after 53 minutes.
Villa took a well-deserved lead thanks to Cash but the introduction of Trossard and Victor Guikeris gave the visitors a greater attacking threat, despite the Belgian coming off late after suffering a repeat of his previous problem.
Manchester City can close the gap this afternoon
Villa, who sit in second place for at least a few hours, could have taken the lead inside 12 minutes with a brilliant save from Raya to keep out Ollie Watkins after the England international turned inside Jurian Temper, who returned to the Arsenal squad today as one of three changes made by Mikel Arteta.
Arsenal quickly posed a threat at the other end as Eze’s effort was disallowed for Bukayo Saka’s offside early in the game.
A brilliant challenge from Declan Rice prevented Cash from scoring just after the half-hour mark, but there was nothing the visitors could do when Pau Torres’ cross from the left hit Timber’s head and into the Polish international’s path and slotted past Raya.
Ben White and Rice both had chances before the end of the first half but failed to seriously test Emiliano Martinez.
Arsenal coach Arteta made changes at the end of the first half
Arteta showed his displeasure by making two substitutions at the break and the effect was almost immediate, as after 51 minutes, Trossard latched on to a cross from Martin Odegaard and fired a shot wide of Martinez’s crossbar.
From their next attack, Arsenal equalized. Odegaard and Saka combined down the right flank and when the Norwegian’s cross deflected into his path, Trossard made no mistake as he scored his 50th Premier League goal.
Having regained their composure in the first half, Villa came roaring back and Watkins was only saved by another fine save from Raya.
Martinez then frustrated Odegaard, while Donyell Malen was inches away from restoring the home side’s lead with a shot that narrowly missed Raya.
Raya thought he had done enough to maintain a point, but Buendia had other ideas.
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2025-12-06 14:36:00
