From the Emirates Stadium – A physical Aston Villa side survived a VAR review for a penalty after barely five minutes when Bukayo Saka was wrestled to the ground inside the penalty area, the referee deciding against penalising Tyrone Mings.
The aggressive approach continued, a mixture of fouls both crunching and cynical keeping the game from flowing in the first 20 minutes – although the home side made the most of the staccato rhythm to get behind a flat-footed defensive line on multiple occasions, and really should’ve been comfortably ahead well before half time.
The inevitable opener…
