Bukayo Saka has praised Arsenal’s defensive work as the foundation of their 1-0 win at Aston Villa on Bank Holiday Monday, insisting the champions showed exactly the kind of resilience required to mount a serious title defence.
Saka’s close-range finish just before the hour mark was the difference between the sides at Villa Park, the winger converting Riccardo Calafiori’s low cross after a slick move that released the pair of them in behind a high Villa line.
It was Arsenal’s second consecutive win and second consecutive clean sheet to open the new campaign, with Mikel Arteta marking his 250th Premier League game in charge of the club with maximum points.
“Very, very tough game. It’s not easy coming here, they made it hard for us. It feels even better to come out with the win,” Saka said.
“The way they defend, really compact and with a high line, they caught us offside. We had to adapt to that. Different from what we faced last week, we weren’t able to implement our attacking pattern.
“One goal is normally enough for us because we are so solid at the back. When we got the first one, it actually opened the game up. We wanted to push for the second one.”
The winger singled out Arsenal’s full-back play as a key contributor to their attacking threat, before returning to the theme of their defensive performance as the match’s defining feature.
“All the full-backs, the way they play gives us a lot. For us wingers, it opens up the game for us, we’ve always got composure in the box,” he said.
“We weren’t at our highest level with the ball. Without it, we were incredible. As soon as we lost it, we were running back. We knew that they liked to play in transition. All the boys put in a shift tonight. It helps with a clean sheet.”
Arteta on squad depth
Villa offered precious little in terms of attacking threat throughout, they have not registered a shot on target in either of their two opening Premier League fixtures, the first time any team has achieved that since Swansea City in 2017-18.
Arsenal, however, could not afford complacency against a side stung by the 4-0 defeat to Brighton on the opening weekend, and Arteta acknowledged as much.
“This is a really difficult place to come and win the game. Last season we lost in the last kick of the game. They were hurt after what happened last week. It was a great squad performance tonight,” he said.
Arteta was asked whether this represents his strongest-ever squad in terms of depth.
“That is what we need. The players that come in make the difference. All of them contributed to create more dominance and more momentum,” he said.
“The level of focus and the way they want to contribute to the team, that is going to be decisive in the season.”
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