Arsenal’s struggle to open up teams away from home this season has largely been papered over by goals from dead-ball situations or last-gasp winners. Their second league defeat of the season, away against Aston Villa on Saturday, may have seen them drop to second in the table after starting the weekend top, but the post-mortem of the 1-0 loss delivered a different verdict to a team struggling to create.

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If Arsenal and Villa played this game another 100 times, the majority of the time, the visitors would likely win. Villa are a well-drilled side but Arsenal cut them open on the counter-attack more than anyone would have expected having seen how Unai Emery’s men controlled Manchester City in also beating them 1-0 on the same pitch three days earlier.

John McGinn’s early goal eventually won the game but after the first 15 minutes’ play Arsenal took charge and they will have been in disbelief at not being in front by half-time. Martin Odegaard’s tame shot from the penalty spot was their biggest chance, and Gabriel Martinelli’s lob over Emiliano Martinez the only other real open shot on goal.

The expected goals (xG) metric may value Arsenal’s goal threat for the evening at 1.4 but that does not tell the full story of the game, which was them spurning half a dozen big chances that fizzled out a step before the trigger could be pulled. Martinez should have been forced to put in a man of the match performance against his previous club but from 12 high turnovers — defined as the number of possessions that start in open play 40m or less from the opponent’s goal — Arsenal only mustered two shots.

Compare that to this season’s trips to Newcastle, Crystal Palace and Everton, where they only won the ball high up three, four and five times in each game. Having become accustomed to playing teams who sit deep and deny them space to attack, what they were faced with at Villa Park should have been the dream scenario.

Without counting the two big chances in the first half or Odegaard’s other good opportunity he swept wide in the second, there were six high-danger situations which encapsulated Arsenal’s lack of ruthlessness…

After 15 minutes, Arsenal started to find joy by setting pressing traps in the centre of the pitch when the ball was played in to midfielders Douglas Luiz and Boubacar Kamara.

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Odegaard pounces on the latter’s first touch and Kai Havertz collects the ball in what was a five-v-three situation. It’s the ideal scenario teams plan for… and Arsenal squandered it.

Havertz does the right thing in waiting for Pau Torres to come towards him as it opens up the space to play in Bukayo Saka. The pass is slightly too slow in getting there, which allows the Spain centre-back to recover, but having dragged him across to the left, Arsenal are four-v-two centrally with Odegaard screaming for the ball…

Saka can get a shot off or play first time to Martinelli, but telegraphs his aim to cut in and then go for goal, an attempt which Torres blocks.

Less than three minutes later, Arsenal win the ball high up again.

They break through Havertz once more but this time the route to goal has far less room for overthinking.

Gabriel Jesus is in the same channel as Martinelli, so he intelligently makes a run to drag Diego Carlos with him and opens up the space…

All Havertz has to do is play it into Martinelli’s path and his first touch will take him clear…

… but he gets it all wrong and passes two yards behind Martinelli, who is forced to check back and the chance is gone.

Villa were struggling to progress the ball at this point in the match and it felt like Arsenal could sense a goal was coming.

Again here, inviting Villa to play into midfield leads to Declan Rice and Odegaard overwhelming John McGinn outside his penalty area.

Rice has two great options to choose from — Saka to his right and Martinelli to his left are both open.

The decision to go with Saka is not fundamentally wrong, as he does everything right. He takes a small touch to engage Torres before passing, which ensures Saka has an extra yard to shoot when the ball comes to him…

… but he completely underhits the pass with the outside of his boot and Torres clears. Rice’s execution is usually impeccable.

In the second half, Arsenal made much more use of the ball in-behind but the counter-attack was still where they had their most clear breaks.

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Here, William Saliba wins a ball intended for Ollie Watkins and plays it up to Odegaard, who has the awareness to spot Havertz bursting forward through the centre circle.

Jesus had been looking for the pass from Odegaard so has to check back to stay onside, but Martinelli has the run on Ezri Konsa.

Rather than carrying the ball on and playing the through pass once Martinelli has got close to level with Villa’s right-back, Havertz releases it at least one touch too early…

… giving Konsa time to get back and intercept.

If the above examples were about decisive passes not found, then Jesus’ chance in the 69th minute was a case of the ideal ball squandered.

Saka finds room on the inside right as Arsenal have a three-v-two on the far side.

With Carlos sucked in by Martinelli and Havertz pinning Matty Cash out wide, Jesus is in space to receive the clipped pass.

It arrives at knee height but a player of his technical ability would still expect to take his first touch towards goal, yet it bounces off him and Villa are able to clear.

The final big opportunity that did not become a shot arrived when Arsenal broke down the left and Leandro Trossard played square to Odegaard.

By letting the ball come across his body, he fools Torres into thinking he can step out and intercept but he ends up a good distance from making the tackle, which leaves Jesus with a huge gap to run into.

Odegaard plays what looks like a nicely weighted pass, which gives Jesus the option of driving forward or playing in Saka…

… but the Brazil forward hesitates and seems to lose track of the pace of the ball, and Alex Moreno eliminates the danger for the home side.

Arsenal’s other avenue to goal aside from counter-attacks was the ball in-behind. It was a glaring omission from the opening 30 minutes of the match but Jorginho, fizzing with energy as he watched from the sideline, set about altering the flow of the game.

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Mikel Arteta was absent from the technical area due to his one-match suspension but the hugely experienced Italy midfielder, who was among the Arsenal substitutes, embodied his manager.

In the 35th minute, he started frantically waving his arms in the air, signalling for his team-mates to switch play to Martinelli on the left flank. A minute later, Martinelli had his big chance after being played in-behind, and that formed the pattern of the game until he was replaced with Trossard in the 70th minute. He had not produced the decisive pass in his time on the pitch but got in-behind six times.

Arteta reasoned that he was withdrawn because the team had started to make rash decisions and play the ball too early but their attacking threat flatlined after that.

The game was there to be won in the first half for Arsenal but they lacked a killer instinct. As much as this was a performance that suggested long-term success, that missing piece of the jigsaw continues to be the nagging doubt when it comes to their title credentials.

(Top photo: Getty Images)