Saka scores only goal as Arsenal beat Villa

Bukayo Saka scored the only goal as Premier League champions Arsenal came away from Aston Villa with all three points.

The England international slid the ball into a near-empty net from Riccardo Calafiori’s cutback, with what was the first shot on target.

Villa went close in the first half when Emiliano Buendia’s shot hit the crossbar, although a goal may well have been disallowed for a foul had the ball found the net.

Not long before Arsenal’s goal, they were awarded a penalty for an Ian Maatsen foul on Saka, but a video assistant referee review found the incident happened outside the box so it was overturned and a free-kick awarded instead.

Kai Havertz forced a save from Villa’s debutant goalkeeper Zion Suzuki as the Gunners tried to make the win safe.

Arsenal sent on England defender Ezri Konsa for a second-half debut against his former club, and he received a good reaction from Villa fans 10 days after his departure.

Mikel Arteta’s Arsenal move to six points with their win, while it is back-to-back defeats for Aston Villa, who have lost a large chunk of last season’s team.

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Bukayo Saka has scored three Premier League goals at Villa Park [Getty Images]

Arsenal were never likely to have it as easy as they did in the 3-0 opening-day win over Coventry City, but they did more than enough to merit the three points here.

Shots and clear chances were at a premium – they only had two shots on target, which was two more than Villa.

Gabriel Magalhaes and Saka had efforts off target in the first half.

They thought they were going to have a penalty when Saka was fouled by Maatsen – but VAR made it a free-kick instead, which Martin Odegaard curled just wide.

The goal came when Eberechi Eze, a half-time substitute for the booked Christos Tzolis, fed Calafiori and the left-back laid the ball on a plate for Saka to score for the third time at Villa Park in his Premier League career.

One negative for Arsenal was a second-half injury for Cristhian Mosquera, who was replaced by £55m centre-back Konsa.

The 28-year-old Konsa became the first player to make his debut for Arsenal against the team they signed him from since Petr Cech against Chelsea in August 2015.

Declan Rice also limped off late on, but it was not immediately clear whether that was going to be an issue.

Unai Emery is having to build a Villa 2.0 after a summer in which he has lost almost the entire spine of his Europa League-winning team.

A narrow home defeat by the champions will not have been as alarming as the 4-0 loss at Brighton on the opening day.

But this was the first time Villa failed to have a shot on target in a home Premier League game since May 2016 against Newcastle United under caretaker boss Eric Black – when they had already been relegated.

In fact, they are the first team to not have a shot on target after two Premier League games since Swansea City in 2017-18.

There were debuts for Japan goalkeeper Suzuki and ex-Chelsea striker Nicolas Jackson – replacements for the departed Emiliano Martinez and Ollie Watkins.

Suzuki showed both good and bad sides – going for a corner and missing it early on and later spilling a Havertz shot which he gathered at the second attempt.

He also made saves from a Rice header and a Havertz one-on-one chance. On both occasions there was an offence – a foul and offside respectively – but Suzuki still made the stops to be sure.

He also looked confident and comfortable with passing the ball at the back.

Jackson did not have a lot of joy on his Villa bow up front – but Watkins would also have struggled to do anything with little service.

The closest they went was when Buendia crashed his long-range effort off the woodwork, but there had been a tackle just before it that would probably have ruled out a goal, had it come.

Summer signings Alejandro Garnacho and Aaron Wan-Bissaka both came on in the second half for their Villa Park debuts.

Ibrahim Mbaye and Taylor Harwood-Bellis were both watching from the stands at Villa Park and are expected to finalise moves on Tuesday’s deadline day.