Arsenal player ratings against Aston Villa: Martin Odegaard, you NEED to do more! Norwegian man goes missing as sleeping Gunners unforgivably collapse at home

Aston Villa came back from two goals down to earn a stunning 2-2 draw against Arsenal on Saturday. After Leandro Trossard served Gabriel Martinelli and Kai Havertz to give the hosts a deserved advantage, Youri Tielemans and Ollie Watkins appeared at the other end to earn Unai Emery’s side a point and stun the Emirates Stadium in silence.

Amid their brilliant start, the Gunners almost opened the scoring just nine minutes into the match. In typical fashion for the home side, the danger came from a corner and it was headed towards Thomas Partey deep in the Villa box, but his shot went over the bar.

It was not until the 34th minute that Mikel Arteta’s men broke the deadlock. Martinelli reacted perfectly to Trossard’s cross, outplaying Ian Maatsen to get the ball over the line despite Emi Martinez’s block. As if that wasn’t enough for Villa, they suffered another blow at the same time as Amadou Onana had to go off injured.

Trossard was the catalyst again as the Gunners made it 2-0 – this time he collected the ball and took his time against Matty Cash before creating the space to send a deadly through ball for Havertz make a volley.

Less than five minutes later, Youri Tielemans headed a fantastic cross from substitute Lucas Digne to send it past Raya. The Belgian midfielder almost equalized a minute later but his shot hit the post. Each time, he left Mikel Merino scrambling – and unsuccessfully – to stop him.

The villa was not built there. In the 68th minute, Cash’s cross flew over Havertz’s head and fell to Watkins in plenty of space at the far post to equalize.

Arsenal pushed to regain their lead and thought they had won the match when Merino, who had been useless for much of the match, sent the ball bouncing into the net, but VAR intervened to disallow the goal for a Havertz handball. Merino came even closer in stoppage time but ended up hitting the post, then Trossard inflated his lines by passing through on goal.

Villa managed to hold on and pick up a point, leaving Arsenal six behind a Liverpool side who have a game in hand.

AIM rates Arsenal players at Emirates Stadium…