Two games, six points, no goals conceded. Coventry was a party. This one was work.
Villa Park on a Monday night is the sort of fixture that used to swallow us whole, and for an hour it looked like doing it again. We won anyway, which is the part that matters and the part that took twenty years to learn.
Konsa Comes Home
Ezri Konsa walked back into Villa Park in the wrong shirt and got the reception you would expect, somewhere between applause and something else. Unai Emery's side are mid-rebuild after a summer that stripped out a lot of what made them awkward, and Nicolas Jackson made his debut for them up front.
For all that, they were the better side for long stretches of the first half. Emiliano Buendía hit the crossbar. On another night that goes in and this is a different post.
The Half-Time Change
Eberechi Eze came on at the break, and the game turned on him without him touching the scoresheet.
On 59 minutes Eze slid a pass into the space Villa had stopped watching. Riccardo Calafiori ran onto it, got to the byline, and pulled it back low across the six-yard box. Bukayo Saka did the unglamorous half of it and poked the thing in from close range.
Nothing about the goal was pretty. All three parts of it were deliberate.
Villa pushed late and did not get there. Cristhian Mosquera limped off in the closing stages with what looked like a leg problem, which is the only thing to worry about from the night.
What Arteta Made of It
"Really happy. A massive win. A tough place to come and earn the three points. We deserved it."
Emery, for his part, was not pretending otherwise:
"We've lost. We competed well. We are trying to rebuild the team but a lot of positive things after the result."
Man of the Match: Bukayo Saka 🏴
Scored in both games so far, and this one was the sort of finish that gets forgotten by Wednesday and wins you a league by May. Calafiori's run made it, and he was the best of us on the night at the other end too. Chelsea at home next Saturday.