Arsenal avenged their opening day defeat and kept themselves top of the Premier League by winning at Aston Villa. Jack Wilshere and Olivier Giroud scored within a minute of one another, but the hosts fought back in the second half and pulled one back through Christian Benteke. Paul Lambert can take solace from that improvement after the break, but several tactical changes one enforced when defender Nathan Baker sustained a concussion failed to bring about a favourable result. Benteke's goal drought ended, however, and that is another positive for the Villa Park faithful to take in the face of defeat. The Gunners meanwhile took to the field for the first time since losing Theo Walcott to a cruciate knee ligament injury. Arsene Wenger was also without Mikel Arteta because of a calf strain, so he made three changes from their last Premier League outing. Lukas Podolski dropped to the bench from the team that started the win over Cardiff as Olivier Giroud and Mesut Ozil returned. Serge Gnabry started wide right. Villa began with a 3-5-2 formation, but this was altered to 4-4-2 and later 4-3-3 as Lambert tried to rescue something. Leandro Bacuna and Andreas Weimann dropped out of the XI that won at Sunderland with Ciaran Clark and Karim El Ahmadi coming in. Who impressed the WhatCulture sports team? Click next to read our player ratings.
Jamie Clark is a qualified Web Journalist after undergoing professional training at the University of Sheffield. A prolific and accredited sports writer, he also enjoys classic comedy, historic fiction, 80s music and heritage.
