Bailey and Watkins put title race back in City's hands as Villa beat Arsenal
Arsenal 0 Aston Villa 2
Advantage Manchester City. Pep Guardiola’s defending champions are two points clear at the top of the table after Arsenal followed title rivals Liverpool’s loss by crumbling under the pressure of having to win to keep control at the top.
They now go to Bayern Munich for Wednesday’s Champions League second leg knowing their second defeat of 2024 could signal an end to their trophy hopes.
Aston Villa manager Unai Emery masterminded a second victory of the season against the club that sacked him after only 18 months and this time it really hurt.
Arsenal were set to return to the top of the Premier League table after Liverpool’s surprise defeat earlier in the day, with reigning champions City hoping for a second miracle in the space of a few hours.
Surely Arsenal would not blow it with the sort of shock home form that wrecked their title chances last season, but they did and in spectacular fashion.
Emery’s inspired introduction of substitute Leon Bailey resulted in an 84th minute goal that rocked Arsenal so badly they conceded a second to Ollie Watkins three minutes later.
Watkins grew up an Arsenal fan, but nobody seemed to enjoy it more than former former local hero Emi Martinez, the Villa keeper.
He celebrated long and hard with the delirious Villa faithful after the match as they took on board moving three clear of Tottenham in the race for a top four finish.
The Argentine was at the heart of this result from the moment he denied Kai Havertz an early goal with a smart near post save which punctuated an opening ten minutes entirely dominated by Mikel Arteta’s Arsenal.
That chance came from the left, but Arsenal mainly attacked down the right with the tried and trusted triangle of Ben White,
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