We will end 2025 on top of the Premier League table after an outstanding second-half showing saw us cruise past third-placed Aston Villa and start the New Year’s celebrations early.
After a closely-fought first half, we took the lead three minutes after the restart when Gabriel netted on his return to our starting line-up after injury, and that was swiftly followed by a well-taken goal from Martin Zubimendi.
Leandro Trossard then smashed in a third before Gabriel Jesus got his long-awaited goal to cap off a perfect night at Emirates Stadium, and despite Ollie Watkins grabbing the scantest of consolations, we emphatically ended Villa’s club record 11-match winning run, and gained a measure of revenge for them curtailing our 18-game unbeaten streak 24 days earlier.
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Highlights: Arsenal 4-1 Aston Villa
First-half stalemate
On that day, a pulsating, end-to-end encounter in Birmingham played out, but in N5 nine different players began the game from the 22 that were selected at Villa Park, which perhaps led to a much tenser, tighter feel to it in the opening 45.
The first chance fell our way when Piero Hincapie did well to keep the play alive by digging out a cross from the byline for Viktor Gyokeres to attack but he nodded over the crossbar. However, just as they did in the reverse fixture earlier in the month, Villa began to show their threat on transitions and counters.
Firstly, Youri Tielemans threaded a ball through the heart of our defence for Ollie Watkins to run onto but fortunately for us he scuffed wide of the near post from a great position, and then the England forward – celebrating his 30th birthday – was picked out again by Emi Bunedia on another swift breakaway, but William Saliba did enough to hold him up and force him to curl well wide.
As the half wore on though, we began to get more of a grip on proceedings, and nearly went ahead on 36 minutes when some excellent wing play by Leandro Trossard saw him loft the ball invitingly for Gyokeres to attack with his head again, but again his attempt flashed agonisingly wide.
As the 45 minutes ticked over, Villa looked to be in again on the counter when a fine pass by Onana looked set to find Watkins but a fraction of a toe-poke by Saliba managed to nudge it just out of the striker’s path – the offside flag went up but replays showed it would have been a tight call.
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Arteta’s delight at emphatic victory against Villa
Gabi starts rout
No-one would have believed that five goals were to follow after watching the first half, but just three minutes after the restart, the first arrived – and with Gabriel restored to our defence, our set-piece prowess came to the fore yet again.
Bukayo Saka swung a corner into the box which fell right on top of where Emiliano Martinez and Big Gabi were standing. The keeper seemed set to easily claim it, but misjudged it under pressure from our man, who simply nodded the ball home from a couple of yards out to mark his comeback with a goal.
That lit a fire under us, and four minutes later another opportunity came our way, and we took it. Martin Odegaard won possession back in midfield and drove forward, and picked the perfect moment to slip Zubimendi through on goal, and the Spaniard coolly tucked it past a helpless Martinez to score his first goal since September and get Emirates Stadium bouncing.
Villa had come from behind to win all of their last four away games, but the two-goal cushion left them hoping for just a point, but we went about looking to try and put the result to bed by finding a third.
Jurrien Timber hooked over from close range after another corner caused the visitors problems, and Odegaard looked to follow up his goal against Brighton three days earlier firstly with another powerful drive which wizzed just over the crossbar, before Martinez got fingertips to a lower effort that crept towards the bottom corner.
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Zubimendi on Odegaard’s “perfect” assist
Floodgates open
You just felt that another was coming, and on 69 minutes it did. An Odegaard cross was only cleared to the edge of the box, and as Lucas Digne dallied, Timber nicked it back into the path of Trossard, who drilled a first-time effort into the net which Martinez barely saw as it flew past him. A lengthy VAR check ensured to search for offside in the build-up, but it proved futile and the Belgian got on the scoresheet against the Villans once again.
But the best was yet to come on 78 minutes. Odegaard again won the ball deep in our own half, controlled it brilliantly and found Zubimendi who skipped down the flank before finding Trossard. He edged to the area before passing to Jesus, who took a touch and curled perfectly around Martinez to score his first goal since his 11-month injury lay-off.
With a glorious victory in the bag, the rest of the game was a procession, but Villa threw a couple of late punches in stoppage time.
Watkins saw a header hit the post, and as the ball fell kindly to John McGinn the Scot seemed set to score but a seemingly stricken David Raya once again produced heroics to block his attempt at close range, but just as that seemed set to keep his sheet clean, a minute later Doneel Malen got to the byline and piked the ball through to Watkins to score his customary goal.
However that did little dampen the party in our corner of north London, and the celebrations can continue into 2026 as we sit pretty at the top of the table with a big win.
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Every word from Arteta’s post-Aston Villa presser
FACTS AND STATS
We will end the calendar year at the top of the Premier League for the seventh time, the joint-most of any side, along with Liverpool and Manchester United.
Aston Villa’s defeat marked just the fourth time a Premier League team have seen a winning run of eight or more games ended by a defeat of 3+ goals, and the first since Liverpool’s 18-game winning run was ended by a 3-0 defeat to Watford in February 2020.
Our 4-1 win was the biggest margin of victory in a Premier League match between two sides starting the day in the top three since we lost 4-1 to Manchester City in April 2023.
We are just the second team to score 20+ set-piece goals (ex. penalties) in consecutive years in the Premier League (21 in 2024, 20 in 2025), after Wimbledon between 1993 and 1996.
We have scored 17 goals from corners in 2025 in the Premier League; only Manchester United in 2012 (18) have ever netted more in a calendar year.
Leandro Trossard has the most goals (10), assists (9) and goal involvements (19) for us in the Premier League in 2025.
Gabriel scored his 19th Premier League goal for us, with this the most by any defender since his debut in the competition in September 2020. Overall, Laurent Koscielny (22) is the only defender with more Premier League goals for us than the Brazilian (19).
What’s next
Our first game of 2026 sees us head to Bournemouth on Saturday, before we tackle Liverpool at Emirates Stadium on Thursday, January 8. Three days later, we’re in FA Cup action when we head to Championship side Portsmouth on Sunday, January 11.
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