I didn’t see it, but my daughters boyfriend who is a gunner said it was chaotic and could have been 5 : 4
You won’t find many villains complaining, we have probably won when we shouldn't. Losing at Arsenal between Christmas & NY is hardly embarrassing.
There were periods of fairly open play. In the first half we seemed to leave you space to run through the midfield (lots of wishing Rice wasn't injured!). Don't think there were all that many big chances though and some last ditch tackling helped us out. We weren't very creative with the possession we had, and dinøt move the ball quick enough when countering. Lots of moaning. If it were boxing it would be a narrow Villa on points victory.
Second half was a different matter, we bossed the midfield and looked ridiculously dangerous - Ødegaard and Zubimendi were buzzing all over the place. Merino could have earned himself a 2nd yellow through stupidity, but Onana had also escaped lightly from a dive in the box 1st half (pretty much everyone goes down easy nowadays, us included, but that was a bit shoddy really - 2/10 for acting skills). We produced some moments of real quality - some Ødegaard through balls, Trossard superb, and Jesus resurrected (pls don't tell him it's Xmas not Easter) to score with his 2nd touch - the first being to sell a defender and shoot it onto his right.
4-0 up and we relaxed a bit (subs as well) and you got control a bit more, scoring the consolation goal and creating almost all your XG of the game in the last ten minutes or so.
That's my slightly dubious recollection anyway, I may have had a bit to drink and there were a lot of loud Arsenal fans either cheering or moaning according to context.
And just for the record, like many Arsenal fans I never had anything against Emery - he seems like a decent bloke and has an incredible record in the UEFA cup (as was). He wasn't a great communicator in English though, and just wasn't really the right bloke for the job for us, straight out of Wenger times. The fanbase was split and toxic, and it was clear the players didn't really know what they were supposed to be doing, chopping and changing every week. He's learnt a lot since then I think - not least improving his English so he's understood. And no, I've got no issue with him not shaking hands, that's just soap opera stuff the tabloids use o sell their stuff.
