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Arsenal suffered back-to-back defeats in the Premier League after losing 1-0 at Aston Villa on Saturday.
Ollie Watkins’ early goal was enough for the win as Arsenal suffered another injury setback with Thomas Partey coming out in the second half.
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Mikel Arteta’s team remains in 10th position in the league, but could end up in the bottom half if the results don’t go their way.
Villa bounced back from his midweek loss to West Ham United and is five points behind the top four with one game in hand.
Villa broke the deadlock within the first two minutes after a poor defense from Arsenal that resulted in a deflected shot from Watkins that went to the back of the net.
Both teams had scoring opportunities in the first half, but Emiliano Martinez saved a Granit Xhaka free throw while Mat Ryan stopped Bertrand Traore’s shot.
After the break, Ross Barkley and John McGinn forced Ryan to save while Nicolas Pepe was a constant threat to Arsenal but failed to score.
Partey limped off after the hour mark and Jack Grealish nearly doubled Villa’s lead, but Ryan produced a good save to deny it.
Arsenal almost leveled at the end, but Martin Odegaard’s shot from close range went over the crossbar.
Watkins also saw a hit pass the post in the later stages of the game, but Villa survived to secure a major victory.
“The values of being a good team, the work ethic … I think we saw that today in packages against a really good offensive team,” Villa manager Dean Smith said.
“We started with a good intensity that set us up really well. It had to be a good defensive performance, but their goalkeeper also had to make some really good saves.
