Arsenal did whatever they needed to do to beat Aston Villa – Frank Leboeuf | ESPN FC

Stevie obviously there was going to be two sides to this if Aston Villa won it would be same o arsal if ARS won it would be oh hello this is a big statement how big is it um I think it just tells us all that they're going to be competing for the Premier League to go to a team that was in the top four last year and who have reted a little bit and who are expecting to do even better they weren't they weren't overly excited to watch until the first goal but they were in total charge of the game really I mean it's no surpris that that's how unit Emy wants to do it against the big teams he he he sits back and tries to tries to smother them and and not give them a lot and they didn't actually give them a lot but once that first goal went in the this Arsenal team changed you know everyone was sharper um they were more aggressive in the final third um but there's all kinds of ways to win a game away from home to the top four team and they did it two ways they they did it with patience until they got that first goal and then he showed us what they're all about what ises this tell us about Arsenal Frank well it says that definitely they are competing for the for the title and uh and you need a part of flck uh in order to uh to beat that that high on the on the on the table and uh it's why they had today they were they were good they were strong uh they had an opportunity the first half but averts made a wrong choice um they were quite lucky because Walkins twice you know missed the chance but as soon as they scored I think for me was kind of game over they knew what they were doing they are mature enough we could have said like two years ago yeah they have a lack of maturity we cannot say that we saw that last year already this year again they started with big maturity I love how they they they compete with the others and they and they compose their game um yeah again you can say whatever you want know saying that they were lucky but it's part of the game and uh they did whatever they needed to do toh to win that game and overall I'm with st I think they they managed to uh to dominate the game so therefore I think they deserve the win I don't know why I'm coming to you for this question which was the worst Ole Watkins Miss Al uh I'd say the first one right there's a lot to shoot at there's a lot of space you made a comment while we were watching and he couldn't even taken a touch but there was no need to take a touch that's the inside Library I'm I'm just saying I'm just saying there's not even a need to take a touch this is a pass into the goal ra just nowhere to be found all you have to do is find the back of the net and it's a different story the second one I give him a pass because it it it's all happening very quickly and he has to react very quickly and he a diving header and sometimes those are difficult to control regardless both of them should have been in the back of the net but the first one is a more egregious Miss what's changing then Stevie psychologically does it change for the for the players going on for the rest of the season now knowing that you've beaten a team that beat you twice last season absolutely yeah you know they'll they'll have gone into the dress room after the game or sitting in the BS or they playing or whatever it is and they'll be going we did that comfortably today really okay they never that's what you kind of take away from it absolutely not Smash and grab you Arsenal right now expect to go to Villa and win but the way they did it they'll be sitting thinking they they never worried us they never really pushed us yeah there was a couple of opportunities that that fell Village Way but in terms of the the actual game over 90 minutes there's no question who the best side so absolutely confident and certainly mentally just keep going it's stress free which then allows that confidence that Steve is talking about to grow and to build that that sense of certainty we're going to go to places and we're going to win games but you only do that by being able to play at the level that Arsenal are playing and again there seems to be and I'll use that word once again is that there's a certain ability for Arsenal to feel confident enough to have the certainty that we can go anywhere and win matches and the importance of it being stressfree we may not think about it in the second match of the season but stress accumulates over the course of a season and accumulates and accumulates and accumulates and if you go through stressful match after stressful match after stressful match eventually you're going to break down the more games like this that seem comfortable enough for Arsenal the better it's going to be for them at the end of the season you agree Frank yeah as I said you need the confidence they they know that they have the luck so they they kind of f feel invincible and they're ready to to to fight and they as Ali just mentioned you know that you can go anywhere because of the way you know you going to be able to play and on top of it the luck that you need uh to sort out the details that maybe you forgot it's everything in their luggage right now so yeah they can travel uh and they're going to go for it um and um they can have a chance again to win the title well again because they didn't get it but they had a chance to win the two fast years the conversation would be very different though wouldn't it if ryer didn't make that say to deny Watkins how good was that well you can't you can't say that honestly um it's a great save yes at the end of the day the I guess the biggest Point Dan is that this opportunity didn't come because arsenal were outplayed or got sliced open or people were out of position it was a deflected shot right that ended up with a goalie in the back of the net and the ball coming off the crossb which is completely different to giving up opportunities to to teams from being cut open I mean that is a world of difference in your brain and in in the way you go about it but as far as the sav's concerned I mean you got to give them 10 out of 10 you know nobody expected that I saw the ball going early Watkin said I'd already chocked it up as a goal but all of a sudden that's what the goalie gets paid for and makes a save and then they go on and win the game comfortably [Music]