Don’t let the opening day 4-0 defeat to Brighton deceive you, Aston Villa are a tough nut to crack. And they were always going to look to make up for it at home against Arsenal on Monday night. Villa have a great record against Arsenal in recent seasons under Unai Emery and in this type of fixture on the whole: the last three seasons each saw the reigning Premier League champions defeated at Villa Park. As we know by now with Unai Emery’s side, they bank on using a high line to push up the pitch and keep teams at bay, and Arsenal haven’t been particularly great at finding ways to exploit that over the years. In 2023-24, the Gunners were threatening for a while through Gabriel Martinelli away, only to blunt the attack by taking him off, and got in behind in threatening fashion through some late Kai Havertz runs from midfield at home, but couldn’t find a finish. They ended up losing both games. This time around, there was an attempt to move beyond that Villa line, but the passes weren’t played. Riccardo Calafiori’s frustration was clear when Arsenal declined the pass to a run in the opening minutes. And there was more with Villa’s line higher from Kai Havertz in particular. Here, both he and Christos Tzolis looked to offer some movement in behind. Havertz was at it again with Gabriel on the ball … … and was joined by Ben white on this occasion, with Bukayo Saka in possession on the touchline. Calafiori would venture forward along with Tzolis down the left at times too … … but the ball wasn’t played, no matter whether it was Martin Odegaard, Myles Lewis-Skelly, Declan Rice or Gabriel in possession. Maybe Arsenal were looking for more security after this fixture last season turned into an end-to-end basketball-type match, one that suited Villa, who went on to win. Or maybe these runs were never being made to be found, but were rather an attempt to push the Villa defence back, creating more space between the lines. But that didn’t happen either. Instead, with Arsenal not looking over the top, most of the space tended to be out wide. When the ball arrived there with Saka or Tzolis, they were aggressively closed down by Ian Maatsen and Matty Cash respectively. After an impressive league debut against Coventry, one where he often picked the ball up in space and could drive forward, Tzolis in particular struggled and was hooked at half-time. It’s ironic that that change saw Eberechi Eze introduced on the wing at Villa Park, around nine months after he himself was removed at half-time in the same fixture and not trusted in that position again for around five months. This time around, he helped contribute to the winning goal. The real contributor, though, was Calafiori yet again. For the third game running, it was his movement that helped Arsenal break the deadlock. And it’s all in the details. Cristhian Mosquera is superbly patient on the ball, waiting for a passing lane to open up, and it’s Calafiori’s deft moment that offers just that: he drifts behind Boubacar Kamara, with the Villa midfielder briefly glancing over his left shoulder to look for the Italian. As he does, he takes half a step to his left and Mosquera doesn’t hesitate, using the extra space that’s been opened up to punch a ball through the lines and into Eze. https://arseblog.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/09/converted-video-conversion-30902N492PZtK9w.mp4 Calafiori continues his run, Eze quickly moves the ball on, and the Arsenal left-back reaches the pass to knock the ball across goal and give Bukayo Saka a tap-in. It was great to see Saka, in true Robert Pires fashion, get across his marker and earn an easy goal at the far post. That’s two in two like that and there should be plenty more to come if he’s on his toes consistently. The goal also saw Calafiori match his tally of assists (two) from last season and was the third game in a row he has been decisive in breaking the deadlock. On each occasion, he’s been tucked in with the winger ahead of him further outside. Calafiori’s movement, coming from an offside position behind Abdukodir Khusanov and bending his run, was brilliant for his Community Shield goal against Manchester City. A similar run saw Ruben Dias take a step out towards him, opening the space for Martin Odegaard to dance through to make it 3-0 in Cardiff.And it was Calafiori supported Tzolis out wide to create Kai Havertz’ goal against Coventry City. Arsenal have got to keep the Italian fit. One other thing to mention from the win at Villa is how the midfield performed. No, not the midfield that started, but the one that closed the game out. The depth in that area of the pitch is, frankly, rude. Bruno Guimaraes showed his incisive passing, Martin Zubimendi looked sharp and leapt into one particularly impressive intervention, and Mikel Merino was the best player on the pitch after he was introduced. Seriously. Merino came on in the 71st minute. By the end of the game, only Bukayo Saka had won more duels, only five outfield players had made more recoveries, and no player had completed more dribbles. The trio showed fantastic calm between them, there was no need for any backs-to-the-wall defending and Arsenal saw things out in control of things. Villa didn’t have a shot after the 70th minute and the subbed-on midfield ended the game with 35 of 38 passes completed between them. If Arsenal can use their depth to see more games out with this level of clear-headedness, it is going to be a very long season for their rivals. VIDEO ANALYSIS The post Tactics Column: Calafiori’s early season hat-trick appeared first on Arseblog ... an Arsenal blog.