Arsenal 2 - Aston Villa 2: well, darn

Yesterday at 04:25 PM

The Gunners drop points from 2-0 up.

Arsenal drew Aston Villa 2-2 at the Emirates from 2-0 up. That simply cannot happen. You can put aside all the other stuff, which we'll get to, but blowing a two-goal lead at home is a non-starter. The Gunners have zero room for error at this point of the season and they keep making mistakes.

Well, Thomas Partey keeps making them. The makeshift right back was at least partially to blame for both Aston Villa goals. It was his giveaway that led to the first and was slow to get out to challenge the cross. He completely lost Ollie Watkins, leaving him wide open at the back post, for the second.

This season, Thomas Partey has played RB in six matches. Arsenal, who had the best defense in the Premier League on goals allowed coming into the match, have conceded in all six of those matches. They've dropped 11 of 18 points on offer. The only win came against Southampton. He cannot play right back.

Arsenal would be better off keeping Jurrien Timber at right back and playing Jakub Kiwior out of position at RCB. Heck, playing Thomas Partey at RCB is probably a better option than playing him at RB. We aren't even having this conversation if William Saliba doesn't have a muscle injury that has Mikel Arteta "worried, very worried" (awesome), nor if either of Ben White or Takehiro Tomiyasu is available for selection.

But that's how Arsenal's season has gone. Injuries upon injuries. Add the Kai Havertz "handball" to the list of bad bounces. And while we're at it, let's dredge up the questionable refereeing calls one final time.

Chris Kavanagh is the referee who gave Declan Rice a second yellow card for kicking the ball away against Brighton. He was the referee today. He did not give Boubacar Kamara a second yellow card for doing the exact same thing. Kamara knocked the ball away from three Arsenal players who were trying to retrieve it to restart play in added time. The second card wouldn't have mattered because it was so late in the game, but it's so clearly inconsistent with decisions from earlier in the season.

As for the Kai Havertz handball, I still don't know whether the ball hit his arm or not. None of the replays I've seen provide even a modicum of certainty whether it does. The camera angle from behind the shot makes it look as if it hits his midsection. The replay from the camera above and behind the goal makes it look like it may have hit his arm.

The VAR sure decided quickly though, didn't they? It's jarring that a match-deciding moment that, based on the replays available to the public, seems a very close call was decided in less than a minute. We've seen reviews take several minutes to reach a conclusion on questions that appeared far more cut-and-dry than this one.

I'm curious whether they had a replay angle not available to the broadcast. The VAR audio will should be interesting, too. I'm just not seeing what was "clear and obvious" about that incident that was sufficient to overturn a call on the field.

Even Ollie Watkins admitted after the match that Aston Villa might have gotten away with one saying, "Seeing it back, I think it's gone in favour for us. If that was against me, I'd be disappointed."

It's also a dumb rule to begin with — why is handball by a scoring attacker the only place where the accidental versus intentional / unnatural position does not matter. The rule is if the ball hits the arm of a scoring player, even accidentally, the goal does not count. But if that same shot was to come off an Aston Villa defender and go wide, Arsenal (correctly) are not awarded a penalty. Isn't that, in essence, the same thing as taking a goal off the board?

What is Kai Havertz supposed to do? He's trying to get out of the way of the shot. One arm is in front of his chest, the other at his side and moving down and away. Once again, the handball law, as written is penalizing players for having arms. Why?!

Of course, the stupidity of the rule doesn't matter in the moment. The rule is what it is. I wouldn't be surprised to see it revisited this off-season specifically because of this moment.

It's just another entry in the diary of ridiculously unlucky ways things have gone against Arsenal this season. Two mistakes by the CDM playing RB, who is only at RB because three right-side defenders are out with injury. As has often been the case this season, Arsenal were maximally punished for those mistakes. Aston Villa generated 0.6 xG in the game. They converted both mistakes into goals. I guess we're fortunate they didn't also score when Thomas Partey threw the ball in backwards towards his own goal directly into the path of a Villa attacker, gifting them another chance.

A wacky, minor, perhaps inconsequential, deflection off an attackers arm, decided entirely too quickly by VAR, takes a match-winning goal off the board. I'd really like to say we're running out of things that can go wrong and weird ways for bad luck to manifest, but given how this season has progressed, I'm sure the football gods can come up with something else.

It's incredibly frustrating because it shifts the focus away from what was a really good performance from Arsenal (Thomas Partey aside). Myles Lewis-Skelly absolutely punked Morgan Rogers up and down the pitch, all game. The same Morgan Rogers who was such a problem for Arsenal the first time the clubs met was reduced to a whining, fouling non-factor. How he escaped booking until the 95th minute is beyond me.

Leandro Trossard was excellent. This season, he's not lived up to the standard he set for himself last season. That may be turning around. He assisted on both goals after scoring against Spurs. Kai Havertz got a desperately needed goal. As did Gabriel Martinelli. There are plenty of positives to take from today's match that will be overshadowed by the controversy and dropped points.

This Arsenal side are fighting, man. They are so clearly battered, bruised, and exhausted. But they fought. They threw everything they had at getting a winner and were a disallowed goal, a post, and a good Emi Martinez save away from pulling out the win. Given the way the season has gone, that they are still in second place is remarkable. Manchester City have faced far less adversity and they've completely collapsed. They've got to regroup and go again in the Champions League on Wednesday. They'll be ready. That's who they are.