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Dean Smith insists that Aston Villa’s victory at Arsenal was even more impressive than their beating against reigning Premier League champions Liverpool last month.
Villa left Emirates Stadium on Sunday night with a well-deserved 3-0 victory when a Bukayo Saka own goal and an Ollie Watkins double turned the game in his favor.
The margin could have been greater if John McGinn had not seen a goal disallowed by VAR in the opening minute.
Villa is now sixth in the table, three points from first place with a game in hand over all teams ahead.
Smith believes the overall display, especially after having sent in seven goals in losses to Leeds and Southampton, even overshadowed his 7-2 win over defending champion Liverpool last month.
“I personally thought it was as good a performance as when we beat Liverpool 7-2,” he said.
“The work of the 11 off-the-ball players to restrict a good Arsenal team was extremely enjoyable.
“He’s on a par with Liverpool, if not better. We were very calm and played with such intensity with or without the ball today.”
“We make it difficult for the teams to beat us, we have conceded seven in the last two games and it is easier to look at the goals conceded column.
“I had no doubt that on defense we were still strong and I was glad that the players came out and showed it today.”
Meanwhile, Arsenal manager Mikel Arteta admits that his team cannot compete with the best teams in the Premier League unless they start scoring more goals.
Despite having improved defensively since Arteta’s arrival in December, his attack stats have dropped lately.
Captain Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang has not scored in open play in the league since the second weekend of the campaign and has taken only 10 shots in Arsenal’s first eight games.
“That’s a team function and a collective thing that we have to do more,” Arteta responded when asked if he needed to do more to get Aubameyang back in between goals.
“We are certainly getting into some situations, but the end product is something we have to improve.
“About his position, his movement and where we can find him, of course we can talk about ‘is this the right or wrong place for him?’
“But when things worked out and he scored, that debate didn’t exist.
“The truth is that with these numbers, scoring this amount of goals, it is impossible to be fighting with the best teams.
“So we have to keep the numbers that we had defensively in our organization and we sure have to improve our numbers in attack if we want to be challenging there. You want to be consistent winning football games, for sure.”
Arteta also took full responsibility for Arsenal’s abject display, which came just a week after the same starting lineup won at Manchester United.
“I don’t feel like we were the team that we’re supposed to be.”
“We perform below our standards, our ability, and I didn’t see the spirit for the first time since I’ve been here that I see every day in training and I see every day when we compete.
“And this is totally my fault because that is why I am here, I am responsible for that, to make sure that the team performs and competes at the highest level every three days. I have not managed to do that today.”
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