Arsenal Analysed: Five reasons why we beat Villa

Thomas Partey celebrates scoring against Aston VillaWe made it two wins from two on Saturday as we beat Aston Villa 2-0 to avenge last season's two defeats at the hands of the same opponents, and maintain our great away form in 2024.

It was a hard-fought three points, but what were the key reasons behind the win? Adrian Clarke has the answers:

Piercing Emery’s line

Villa dropped their back four and central midfield deeper than usual for this early season encounter; a tactic they used to good effect in last season’s 2-0 win at Emirates Stadium. Allowing us to come onto them with 60.7% of possession, Unai Emery’s aim was to protect their own box by clogging up space with nine of their 10…