What made Arsenal's title-defining victory over Aston Villa even sweeter after post-match drama

Arsenal secure title-defining victory over Aston Villa as Unai Emery and Emi Martinez left flailing for explanations and appropriate responses.

I believed this game to be a title-defining match before kick-off, but the sense in the aftermath of such a powerful victory for Arsenal over Aston Villa makes me believe this could be even more. It’s essential to emphasise the distinction between ‘title-defining’ and ‘title-deciding’ in this context, as there is still much football to be played.

But the game separated the two sides from the challengers and the hopefuls. Villa came to disrupt, frustrate and hurt Arsenal, and they very nearly succeeded in the first half, but the Gunners welcomed back their faithful weapons and used them to crack open Unai Emery’s stubborn plan.

The set-piece narrative might have gone into hibernation for a while, or at least for the period that Gabriel Magalhaes was injured, it seems, but Arsenal re-equipped their array of options with the Brazilian centre-half and looked much better for it.

What’s scary for the Gunners’ rivals is that this isn’t even a fully fit and firing Gabriel. And if you haven’t checked out his mockery of Amadou Onana’s post-match antics, then you certainly need to.

This team was just waiting to unleash its potential like a coiled spring. I posited before the game with my colleague John Cross on our Seeing Red podcast that Arsenal were either heading down two paths.

With the agonising narrow victories over Wolves, Everton, Crystal Palace and Brighton, the prediction was either the team were heading toward slipping off the edge into an awful result, or, someone was about to get a thrashing. I am thrilled it was the latter.

However, the way Arteta described it after the game, he explained how the margins in this game were tighter than perhaps some of the matches that Arsenal had won less comfortably.

“Well, I always said that to continue to win, you have to win in different contexts,” he said. “In some games we did very good, and the margin should have been much bigger. We were unable to do that, so we opted for smaller margins.

“Today, maybe the margin wasn't that big, but we made it because we were extremely efficient and ruthless in the opposition box. That's the way, and we won with a lot of injuries. Today we lost Declan, Richy, and some others came back.

“Gabi came in after such a long time without scoring a goal and scored a wonderful goal. Everybody is ready to contribute, and that's the way.”

Those two words are exactly what Arsenal need to now harness for the rest of the season if they are to finally win the Premier League title: efficiency and ruthlessness. The victory means Arsenal open up a six-point gap to Unai Emery’s side.

Villa have been such a thorn in the Gunners’ sides over the past few seasons. Scuppering title hopes and damning Arteta and his players to very painful, sometimes cruel results.

Emi Martinez and Emery have almost taken on, as their side’s nickname so appropriately labels them as, villains. The Argentine was booed throughout the game, while the Villa coach was subjected to, “Emery, what’s the score?” chanting before the final whistle.

Both then completely folded after the game concluded in different ways. Emery failed to wait, despite claiming he had in two post-match interviews, to shake hands with Mikel Arteta, who graciously accepted afterwards as being nothing more than “part of the game.”

While videos have since emerged of former Arsenal goalkeeper Martinez responding to some fans who were presumably goading him, he had to be dragged down the newly exposed player’s tunnel. So many have questioned Arsenal’s ‘mentality’ this season, that appears to have been the buzzword.

Myself included, I get the sense that there is this enormous weight hanging over them. That said, there was certainly a lifting of a burden it seems with such a win.

Victories like this can be the making of sides, and while it may not have been a game that decides the title for the Gunners, it most certainly could be one which defines their title ambitions ahead of a brand new year. So, enjoy this, drink it in, and Happy New Year!