Arsenal boost title hopes as dramatic late double settles thriller at Aston Villa

Three touches. Three impacts. Three distinct noises. The whip of a perfectly struck football off the meat of Jorginho’s boot. The symphonic clank of the Villa Park crossbar. The dull thud as it clattered off the skull of a blameless Emi Martínez. Perhaps this is what salvation sounds like. Those three noises were immediately engulfed by a fourth: the sound of the travelling Arsenal fans shrieking in disbelief, as if rescued from the depths of a despair they feared they might never escape.

Back to the top of the league Arsenal go, just as everyone expected, and yet nothing about this felt simple or preordained. Indeed until Martínez’s own goal in the third minute of injury time it felt as if their race might well be run, right here in the Birmingham suburbs.

Aston Villa led early, led again, hit the bar on 82 minutes, and three points here would not have disgraced them. Instead they lost by two clear goals, Gabriel Martinelli rolling the ball into an empty net with Martínez – who had gone up for a corner – again an unwitting spectator. Martínez served Arsenal with distinction for almost a decade. But they have probably never loved him more than they did at that moment.

A sickening sucker punch for Unai Emery, too, in his first game against his former club. Ultimately they were undone by a familiar failing: an inability to defend the second balls around the edge of their penalty area. And for all the tireless running of Boubacar Kamara and Ollie Watkins, this will go down as a huge missed opportunity for them: a full week’s preparation against a team tired and bruised after defeat by Manchester City on Wednesday night.

Scoring and conceding early has been something of a Villa trait this season. Perhaps it was no surprise,