Aston Villa’s wait for a goal continues after Arsenal defeat

Aston Villa have suffered a second consecutive defeat in the English championship, losing to reigning English champions Arsenal in London.

Unai Emery’s side are still without a goal this season, but the Aston Villa manager believes his team produced a positive performance despite the result.

“We played well, but lost,” Emery said after the match.

The defeat means Aston Villa remain without a point after the opening two rounds of the campaign. Their lack of goals is also yet to be addressed, with the team having failed to score in either of their first two matches.

Arsenal, the current champions of England, secured the victory against Emery’s team. For Aston Villa, however, the result again left the side empty-handed despite the manager’s view that the performance itself was encouraging.

Emery’s assessment focuses on the contrast between how Aston Villa played and the outcome recorded in the second round. The team were beaten by Arsenal, but their manager maintained that the display deserved a more positive conclusion. His brief verdict “We played well, but lost” summed up the difference between the performance he saw and the final result.

The early-season picture is therefore defined by two issues for Aston Villa: consecutive defeats and a failure to find the net. The team have not yet scored a goal in the current season, leaving them with work to do both in attack and in the league table.

Their next opportunity to change that comes away from home against Hull City in the following round of the English championship. That fixture will give Emery’s side a chance to end the goal drought and attempt to collect their first points of the season.

Until then, Aston Villa’s campaign remains without a goal, while their latest result has added another defeat to their opening run. Arsenal’s status as the reigning English champions makes the opposition significant, but the immediate concern for Emery’s team is clear: they must turn a performance their manager considered good into a result, while also finding the net for the first time this season.