Aston Villa 2-4 Arsenal | Robbie's Player Ratings

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Great fight and, you know, if you're going to win a title, this is what we've got to do and we did it. So well done to the players today, but let's run through the player ratings. Aaron Ramsdale in goal pulled off a big save from Leon Bailey that could have put Villa back in the lead. I think that was after all the guard missed his chance. That was a massive save. Apart from that in the game, didn't really have a lot to do. He had no chance on either of the goals and just didn't have a lot to do. We were the team that was always on the ascendancy, but for that save, that was massive. I'm going to give him a seven out of ten. Going to the back four now. Let's start off with the right back. I thought Ben White, a little bit shaky in the first half, got done way too easily. I think it was the second goal where, you know, he just got done on the overlap, but in the second half, he played much, much better. Ran out of steam a bit towards the end of the second half, but I thought it was very positive, his performance going forward in the second half. I'll give him a seven as well. Saliba, I thought Saliba had a good game today. I thought, you know, you know, again, he didn't have a lot to do, but you could say that he could have possibly got a little bit tighter on the goal, but I think I've got to give real credit to Ollie Watkins because it was such a great strike. I picked him out as a danger man before the game, and it's a fantastic strike by Ollie Watkins, and I didn't like the way Saliba was left isolated. I mean, that's happening way too much in games. When you've got a player like Ollie Watkins, you've got to double up on him, and it was just, you know, but I think I'll give Saliba, because after that he played pretty well, I'm going to give him a seven. Gabriel, I thought, again, wasn't his best performance, but then again in the second half grew into it more. Should have scored. I thought he had a header that he should have scored from. I'll probably give him a slightly lesser mark of a six. Zinchenko, I was looking at probably giving him like a five or less after he gave the ball away for the first goal and was looking very sloppy, but what a massive goal to get us back into the game, and then after that he was really instrumental in our play. I was so pleased for him to see him come out with a decent performance in the end. I'm going to give him a seven in the end. He really recovered well in that game. Moving into the midfield, Jorginho. He didn't get the goal, but what a strike. You've got to be brave to do that at that stage in the game. You know, I mean, you're a new player. You've come from Chelsea. You know, I mean, the fans are still, I don't know, man, this guy, is he a Chelsea up? To take on a strike like that takes a lot of bravery. Could have just hit it miles over the bar. He'd come off the bar and then it's gone in. Listen, stroke of luck really, it coming back off a Martinez, but that is what happens when you take a chance like that, and that is why he's been brought in. He's an experienced player. He hits the ground running. That is why the signing made perfect sense, and I'll tell you what, he could have had a couple of assists in the game as well. So Jorginho for me today gets an 8. I thought that was a very good performance by him. Martin Odegaard, as usual, he kept going. He never stopped. He kept going and he kept going and he kept going, but if he had, I'll tell you what, right, his players have digged him out of a hole because he would have got like a 1 from me for that miss. That was a horrendous miss. What was he doing? He should have buried that, but listen, I'm going to give Martin Odegaard a 6 today. Kept going, kept trying to make things happen. Granit Xhaka was a quiet game for Xhaka today. He actually got taken off. You could see he was a little bit low on energy. Maybe a time to take him out for a couple of games, but I'll give Granit Xhaka a 6. Moving to the front three, Eddie Nketiah down the middle. Should have scored. Again, he had a couple of chances in the game. That header should have done better with it, but it was his hard work and industry with the closing down that created that chance for Odegaard. He didn't stop. I'm going to give him a 7. The effort was there. You cannot fault him for that. Trossard, I thought he started the game very well, but then after a while sort of faded out of the game a bit, so I'll probably give Trossard a 6. And on the right-hand side, listen, my man in the match has got to go to Xhaka. I thought today he was brilliant. Scored a brilliant goal. Always carried a serious threat down that right-hand side. I'm going to give Xhaka a 9. My man in the match. He played, I think, the last 20 minutes of that game for injury as well. Let's now move to the substitutes who came on. Fabio Vieira came on. You know, I mean, he did okay when he came on. I'll probably give him a standard 6. Who else came on? I mean, like some of the other substitutes that came on didn't really have a lot of time to impact the game, but one did, Martin Eli. Come on, gets his goal right at the end. Brought a bit of energy to the proceedings. I'm going to give him an 8 for scoring in the game. Don't know if I've missed anyone. Let me just check to see in all the excitement if I missed anybody out. Tomiasu came on. Didn't really have enough time. All of them just get a standard 6. And there's one player I forgot about who I'm going to give him a 10 today. Definitely gets a 10. Emi Martinez. Emi Martinez, ex-Arsenal player. He always seems to have a hard game every time he comes back to play Arsenal. Listen, I don't want to rip him too much. I remember that time when he said he upset the Arsenal fans when he left and he said, listen, I want to go on to a bigger club or whatever it was. I don't know if he's misquoted. I still like Emi Martinez and well done for him for winning the World Cup, but thank you very much today for that goal. I mean, that was very, very important. The referee today, I thought the referee was decent to be fair. He did allow a lot physicality, but he was consistent with it and allowed it on both sides. And there was no real controversial incidents in the game. VAR never had to get involved in anything. So that was fantastic. And Mikel Arteta today. Listen, I'm going to give him, I'm going to score him high. The team's bounced back. The substitutions were positive and we got the job done. And for him, for bringing in Jorginho and having faith in him, you know what I mean? And Jorginho delivered for him today. So I'm going to give him an 8 out of 10. And the fans today, they were loud. You could hear them there. They pushed the team over the line. They deserve that. Those fans who've been so, so brilliant. They'll be celebrating all the way down the M6 and the M1. Big up to those fans. 10 out of 10. It's a huge win for Arsenal. We're back on track in the title race. Still a long way to go, but wow, that win was needed. Shop for AFTV merch at shop.aftv.co.uk. Subscribe to us on YouTube. Follow us on Instagram, Facebook, Twitter, TikTok, Snapchat, and Twitch. We've got content for every platform. So check it out.