Ollie Watkins punishes woeful Arsenal as Aston Villa run riot at the Emirates

The pivotal period of this game, you felt, came around an hour in. Arsenal were knocking on the door in search of an equaliser. Chances whistled past either post. For a while, it felt like Aston Villa might have to settle in for a long and painful rearguard action. At which point, Dean Smith’s team seemed to come to a crucial collective realisation: they were better than Arsenal. Not better organised, or better drilled, but better in stark and absolute terms. And so in a crushing climax, they set about proving it.

As Jack Grealish and Ross Barkley began to run the game, as Ollie Watkins picked off the two goals that would turn a victory into a rout, Arsenal were stripped bare again and again, beaten not just in deed but in thought. Marshalled by Tyrone Mings at the back, orchestrated by Douglas Luiz in midfield and driven forward by the superb front four, Villa won their duels, won their second balls and left Arsenal choking in their dust.

The silvery Grealish was again an utter pleasure to watch, a player who often seems to be playing in slippers. Yet whereas Villa’s plan last season essentially involved finding Grealish and then waiting for someone to foul him, now Barkley and Watkins offer creative channels around him. Watkins is a seriously underrated striker: quick, ruthless and tactically shrewd. Barkley offers thrust and energy and the wounded pride of a player with a point or two to prove. His first-time cross for Villa’s second goal was one of the assists of the season.

Arsenal, for their part, were unwitting accomplices in all this. The inconsistency, the inability to pick teams apart, the overreliance on crosses and counterattacks: this we knew about them already. But there was something else here too: inertia as well as ineptitude, a lack of application as well as a lack of imagination. The press was almost non-existent. The front three were abject. Willian appeared to have been switched shortly before kick-off for a different Willian, similar in appearance but with shins for feet and a basic incomprehension of time. Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang looked like a man running with eggs in his pockets.

Trézéguet wheels away after forcing Bukayo Saka to score an own goal. Photograph: James Williamson – AMA/Getty Images

This is on Mikel Arteta as much as anyone, not least because his substitutions only seemed to make things worse. For Arsenal’s rookie manager, this game may constitute a long-awaited reckoning: clutch wins and early silverware may have reinforced the impression of a team in chrysalis, building from strong foundations and perhaps to be forgiven for the odd rough night. But as they slip back into the bottom half of the table, you sense the time for excuses is over.

They got an early warning, too. Within 45 seconds John McGinn had the ball in the Arsenal net, only for his goal to be chalked off because the offside Barkley was blocking Bernd Leno’s line of vision. Yet not even this reprieve seemed to awaken them. On 25 minutes a delightful exchange between Grealish and Barkley on the left ended with a neat pass to Matt Targett, whose cross was turned in by Bukayo Saka: an own goal, albeit one largely forced by Trezeguet.

Arteta’s reaction, apart from pointing and shouting and generally looking like a man who had mislaid his electric cattle prod, was to bring on Dani Ceballos for the injured Thomas Partey at half-time. Yet still Arsenal’s creativity deficit remained unaddressed. Grealish and Barkley both had chances before, with 20 minutes left, Douglas Luiz picked out Barkley on the left byline, whose brilliant volleyed cross was headed in by Watkins from two yards.

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Four minutes later, the final insult: as an Arsenal attack broke down and their disinterested players jogged back into position, Emiliano Martínez found Grealish on the counter. He was allowed to advance 40 yards with barely a challenge, Watkins was allowed to sneak in behind, and as the shot hit Leno’s net, Arsenal realised their race was run.

The temptation, perhaps, will be to write this off as another of this season’s freak shows. The international break is now on us and in a month’s time both clubs could easily be swimming in different directions.

But perhaps the recurring theme of this campaign has been the importance of having a plan: a style, a strategy, an identity that can anchor a team through tough times.At the moment, only one of these two teams looks remotely close to possessing one.