Arsenal defeated Aston Villa 2-1 to maintain 100 percent EPL start / Man City vs. Nottingham Forest result, highlights and analysis as Haaland got another hat-trick in their 6-0 win
Arsenal stretched their unbeaten start to the season to five games with a 2-1 win against Aston Villa, piling further pressure on visiting manager Steven Gerrard. Gabriel Jesus and Gabriel Martinelli scored in each half.
When Arsenal surged forward in the first half, the Villa defense panicked, with Jesus, Gabriel Magalhaes, Martin Odegaard, and Bukayo Saka all missing chances until Jesus hammered home his third of the season after Granit Xhaka’s deflected attempt was parried (30).
Two excellent saves by former Gunner Emi Martinez denied Jesus and Martinelli from expanding their lead before the interval.
However, it was Villa who struck next, with substitute Douglas Luiz (74) bending in a corner seconds after coming on in a spectacular replay of his Carabao Cup strike against Bolton last week.
However, Arsenal responded immediately after conceding, with Martinelli poking in Saka’s cross (77), and the Gunners survived another dangerous corner from Leon Bailey in the last minutes to keep their perfect start.
During the visitors’ dreadful first-half performance, Arsenal fans chanted’sacked in the morning’ at Villa coach Steven Gerrard. His squad improved after the break, but with four defeats in five games this season and only three victories in their past 16 league games, Villa are in desperate need of a lift.
On Saturday night, they face free-scoring Manchester City at Villa Park.
Arsenal travels to Old Trafford on Super Sunday to face Manchester United, where they will look to build on their strong start with a statement win against a ‘big-six’ foe.
They once again demonstrated their combination of excellent attacking play and the capacity to battle to victory against Villa. Already this season at the Emirates, they have had to recover quickly to Leicester goals and a setback against Fulham, and it was the same scenario on Wednesday night, when they should have capitalized on a first half in which they struck the target seven times.
Man City vs. Nottingham Forest result, highlights & analysis as Haaland
Erling Haaland made it back-to-back hat-tricks in Manchester City’s 6-0 destruction of Nottingham Forest, continuing his amazing start to life in the Premier League.
Haaland scored a stunning treble as City rallied from 2-0 behind to defeat Crystal Palace 4-2 at the weekend, but he made this a much easier matter by scoring a hat-trick with his left foot, right foot, and head inside 38 minutes.
The 22-year-nine old’s goals in his first five Premier League outings set a new competition record, surpassing Micky Quinn’s and City’s all-time leading striker Sergio Aguero’s previous best of eight.
Joao Cancelo added a magnife 50th minute, while Argentina winger Julian Alvarez completed the whitewash with a second-half brace.
