🚨 Did you notice these three big problems for Arsenal in their 2-1 defeat at Aston Villa?

Arsenal suffered just their second defeat of the season as Aston Villa’s Emi Buendia hit a scrappy late winner in today’s early kick-off at Villa Park.

The Gunners could now see their lead over Manchester City cut to just two points if Pep Guardiola’s side beat Sunderland today.

That isn’t necessarily the end of the world for Arsenal’s title hopes, but there are three issues that might be starting to catch up with Mikel Arteta’s side.

How did Arsenal perform against Villa?

If you look at the underlying stats, this was far from a poor Arsenal display in what is a difficult away game for basically anyone in the Premier League. Arteta’s side generally have a bad record against Unai Emery’s Villa, who also beat Man City just a few weeks ago.

So for Arsenal to have more possession (53% to 47%), more shots on target (9 to 6), more passes, more crosses, and more successful final third passes means Arteta coached a pretty good game. The eye test also says 1-1 would probably have been a fair result, and a well-earned point considering the circumstances.

The more worrying side of things is Emery’s side were very clearly more dangerous with 2.27 xG to Arsenal’s 1.84. Villa’s xG was also higher when it came to open play chances, though Arsenal edged it on set-pieces.