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It just doesn’t feel like it’s going to be Arsenal’s season

One step forward, two steps back. It’s the story of Arsenal’s season really.

It’s tough to really criticise them too much for what happened against Villa. It’s been such a demanding week with three energy sapping games in just six days.

Pretty much the same group of players have had to go through 120 minutes against United, 90 emotionally draining minutes against Spurs in the north London derby and then another high intensity 90 against Aston Villa on Saturday.

But despite all the injuries and everything that has gone on, they played really well. The frustration obviously is, however, they threw away a game they had won with a mad spell when they just lost their way at the back.

Thomas Partey and Mikel Merino could have done better with the first goal, although it was a wonderful ball from Lucas Digne and a great run and header from Youri Tielemans.

But the second goal was totally avoidable. It was really poor from Partey. He switched off completely and let Ollie Watkins go. You just can’t do that against a striker like him in the penalty area.

Ollie Watkins (Photo by Mike Hewitt/Getty Images)

To Arsenal’s credit I thought they responded quite well after that. The players were clearly running on fumes and there was nothing on the bench to change things, but they somehow picked themselves up and could have grabbed a winner.

But things just aren’t going for them this season. It’s felt like that from the start of the campaign and we saw it again in those closing moments against Villa, especially with the disallowed goal.