Arsenal 2-1 Aston Villa: Gunners keep up one hundred per cent record

Shhhhh! The celebration police might hear. Arsenal won’t care if they do, of course. Why would they? Top of the Premier League, five victories out of five – what’s not celebrate?

Having spent the last few days being condemned for having the audacity to show emotion after beating Fulham on Saturday, the Gunners were at it again.

Granted, they made harder work of this victory over Aston Villa than they should have but that’s even more reason to rejoice.

Of course, we’ll have a more accurate reading of how well Arsenal are equipped to end their Champions League exile when they visit improving Manchester United on Sunday.

Arsenal have now won five games from five at the start of the Premier League season under manager Mikel Arteta

Aston Villa have suffered four defeats in their opening five matches of the campaign, piling the pressure on Steven Gerrard

But for now – it’s the perfect season. If you can’t celebrate perfection?

‘The first half was probably one of the best we have played. We could have scored three, four, five. We didn’t kill the game and then in this league, the game is alive,’ said Gunners head coach Mikel Arteta, who did little to quell concerns midfielders Thomas Partey and Mohamed Elneny are facing lengthy periods out with respective thighs and knee injuries.

At the other end of the spectrum this was the latest loss for beleaguered Villa, their fourth in five Premier League matches.

The pressure is building on manager Steven Gerrard.

‘It’s natural (the pressure). I won’t shirk it – I will continue to lead this club forward best way I can,’ said Gerrard.

Arsenal are now starting to look like a united team, with full support from their fanbase following their superb start

Gabriel Jesus put Arsenal ahead after Emi Martinez’s spilled Granit Xhaka’s deflected cross in the first half.

You wouldn’t expect anything less from Gerrard and the fighting spirit his team showed should serve as some encouragement.

Indeed, while his team were pummelled for most of this encounter, the Villa boss should take solace in the fact his struggling team hung tough here at the Emirates.

If this was boxing match, the referee would have stopped it well before full time.

But Villa refused to throw the towel in, fair play to them for that.

Yet they’ll need more than that to drag themselves out of the predicament they find themselves.

It doesn’t get any easier, either. Guess who they face on Saturday? Clue: they play in blue and Erling Haaland’s their star striker.

Gabriel Martinelli netted the winner for Arsenal minutes after Douglas Luiz’s equaliser, which came direct from a corner

Steven Gerrard’s side are now 19th in the Premier League table, ahead of only Leicester, after their fourth straight loss

Of course, in isolation, losing to Manchester City isn’t the end of the world. But a sequence of five defeats in six – that’s difficult to justify.

Last night Arsenal wasted no time in trying to compound Gerrard’s misery, their start was dripping with verve and invention.

In contrast, Villa were a bundle of nerves – clearly void of any confidence and belief.

When the natives are restless, as they are at Villa Park that isn’t a good combination.

Emi Martinez made a string of important saves inside the opening 15 minutes, Gabriel Martinelli, Gabriel Magalhaes and Martin Odegaard both denied.

Bukayo Saka squandered a golden opportunity in the 23rd minute to leave Arteta with his head in his hands.

He needn’t have worried, though, because seven minutes later his side scored the goal their performance deserved. 

Luiz scored directly from a corner for the second time in two weeks to square things up against the run of play at the Emirates

Gabriel Jesus took the credit, firing home close range after Martinez could only parry Granit Xhaka’s effort that deflected off Ezri Konsa.

But, in truth, Jesus and Arsenal owed a huge debt of gratitude to some woeful Villa defending.

By this point, the only positive for Villa was that they were only a goal down.

Indeed, that would also have concerned Arteta as Robert Jones blew up for the break. His team’s superiority deserved more than their slender advantage – Kieran Tierney, Saka and Martinelli all wasted further opportunities before half-time.

Yet, somehow, Villa were still in the game, they deserve a semblance of credit for that.

Martinez potentially should have done better to claw Martinelli’s second-half winner away but he could only palm it into the net

Jesus scored his third goal of the season to give his side a deserved lead following a period of dominance from the home side

They were poor, yes. But they weren’t crumbling and somehow managed to drag themselves level in bizarre circumstances in the 74rd minute when Douglas Luiz, who had only just come on in place of John McGinn, scored directly from a corner for the third time since the start of pre-season.

Aaron Ramsdale was adamant he was being impeded by Ollie Watkins as he tried to meet Luiz’s delivery – but VAR disagreed.

Worryingly for Villa, Gerrard refused to guarantee that Luiz, who has less than 12 months to run on his contract, will remain at the club beyond the tonight’s transfer deadline.

Gerrard stood in his technical area urging his team on. He knew what was coming: the kitchen sink.

Aaron Ramsdale was generally solid for Arsenal despite failing to get to Luiz’s equaliser in the second half

But his team stood tall for just three minutes when Martinelli fired home the winner from Saka’s perfectly executed back post cross.

Gerrard may look to Matty Cash’s failure to spot the Brazilian – but that was neither here nor there.

All that mattered was that Arsenal were celebrating – again.

Relive Sportsmail’s live blog for the Premier League clash between Arsenal and Aston Villa, including updates from West Ham vs Tottenham and Manchester City vs Nottingham Forest.