Aston Villa lost 1-0 at home to Arsenal in the Premier League, a game settled by one clinical moment from the league's most functional side. It's a result that leaves Villa without a shot on target for the second match running, but there's plenty of mitigating circumstances for the season's slow start.
Zion Suzuki made his full Villa Park debut in goal and was the standout performer with his distribution impressing. Nicolas Jackson also started, similar in profile to Ollie Watkins but still finding his feet after a couple of training sessions. In the stands were Villa's two deadline-day transfers, Ibrahim Mbaye and Taylor Harwood-Bellis, who sat next to Leon Goretzka and Johan Manzambi, who both weren't at full fitness yet. Hopefully, some of the new boys will be in the squad for the trip to Hull City, though.
This Post-Mortem covers the contentious penalty decisions, a familiar team structure, checks out who the Speed Demon was, and builds the case for why a repeated no-shots-on-target scoreline doesn't yet mean what it might look like from the outside — a squad still waiting for the version of itself that's actually finished being built.
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