At home, Arsenal led 2-0 against Aston Villa with goals from Kai Havertz and Martinelli. But just eight minutes into the second half, Aston Villa equalized after goals from Tielemans and Watkins.
At the end of the match, the referee did not recognize a goal for Arsenal after consulting VAR. In this phase, the ball touched Kai Havertz's hand after Mikel Merino's shot.
After the match, Arsenal head coach Mikel Arteta did not want to dwell on Arsenal's decision to disallow an 88th-minute goal, but admitted that the decision was difficult to accept.
“In some ways it was like handball, but in other ways it wasn’t,” he told Sky Sports. “The decision was made by the referee, it’s hard to accept. There was a lot of emotion involved, but in the end the goal was disallowed.”
Speaking about Arsenal's performance, Arteta said he felt "proud" and added: "Looking at the way Arsenal played and competed, in the third game in six days and after going over 120 minutes against Man United, the whole team performed excellently, dominating for most of the game.
Obviously, we deserved a better result. But the way we defended after the second goal was something that shouldn't have happened if we want to keep winning."
Against Aston Villa, Arsenal had 18 shots, 6 of which were on target. The home team had more than 65% of the ball and had the better chances. However, they failed to capitalize on them and were also unlucky in some of their shots.
In contrast, Aston Villa took advantage of Arsenal's defensive errors to score an equalizer. According to Sky Sports expert Paul Merson, Arsenal defended like schoolchildren in the second goal. In this match, the Gunners did not have the service of center-back Saliba due to injury.
Meanwhile, Aston Villa head coach Unai Emery claims he did not deserve to be shown a yellow card in the match against Arsenal.
The Villa head coach received his third yellow card of the tournament for kicking the ball along the touchline. With this card, Emery will have to sit in the stands to watch and direct his players in the upcoming match against West Ham.
On Aston Villa's performance, he added: "The players played well and to get a good result at Arsenal is very difficult. They controlled the game and put a lot of the ball in our half. After going behind, we responded very well. The spirit we showed was exactly what I wanted."
