If Arsenal do not win the title for the second season in a row, one of the main culprits will be Aston Villa as the Villans inflicted two losses on the Gunners in the ongoing league campaign. The second one was London club’s first Premier League defeat in 2024, but it could cost them dearly. It could cost them the title, as they are no longer in control of the championship race.With the victory over Luton (5-1), Manchester City took over the leadership position, and after Sunday’s epilogue, they will remain at the top of the standings.”That’s the reality at the moment. It’s been like that for the last few months. In any other league in the world if you win as many games as we do, you’d be six or eight points ahead. That’s not the case here. We knew this moment could come and now we need to show a reaction. If you find yourself in this situation, you don’t have the necessary quality. This is a big test for us, if one result disturbs us then we are not strong enough. It’s that simple,” Mikel Arteta said after the game.Emery wins at the Emirates and puts City at the top of the leagueAlthough he was not satisfied with the entire game, the Spanish expert praised his team’s performance in the first half. It ended goalless, and Arteta believes Arsenal should have had the upper hand. By a great margin.”The first half was one of the best we’ve played against a top team this season. We should have scored three, four or five goals, but we didn’t get any. We struggled to pass the ball to certain areas and were very sloppy with the ball. A couple of corners for them, then we conceded a goal in a very bad way, and then on top of that we conceded another. It was a painful defeat. I think we should have scored three, four or five goals in the first half, it would have been a completely different game… That was not the case and we have to accept it, to praise the opponent, they beat us and we will have to continue. We have to show a reaction,” Arteta repeats.##NAJAVA_MECA_8028088##In addition to the defeat, the fans were also worried about the injury of the captain Martin Odegaard, who was forced to leave the game in the 79th minute.”He felt something, he was not able to continue,” Arteta was brief.
