A goal from Emi Buendia with the last kick of the game saw us cruelly lose to Aston Villa at Villa Park as our 18-match unbeaten run came to an end.
In a breathless, end-to-end affair, Matty Cash gave the hosts the lead at half-time thanks to a well-taken finish on 36 minutes, but after the break we came out firing and swiftly responded through substitute Leandro Trossard who netted for the third successive league game having returned from injury.
Both sides had numerous good chances to snatch the win but found David Raya and Emiliano Martinez in good form, who made a string of top saves between them, but in the last action of the game, Buendia managed to find the net after a goalmouth scramble to secure a fifth-straight win for the in-form Villans.
Villa Cash in
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The teams went into this game sitting first and third in the table, and with confidence high in both camps, chances were quick to come.
Martin Odegaard shot straight at Martinez when we won back possession in a dangerous area, and then a minute later Raya saved smartly from Ollie Watkins after the Villa frontman wriggled his way past our centre-back pairing of Piero Hincapie and Jurrien Timber.
Bukayo Saka then became involved in the thick of the action, firstly driving the ball goalwards which forced Martinez to push his blast away, and then heading over Odegaard’s resulting cross. But just before the midway point of the half, Saka slipped in behind the Villa backline to square for Ebere Eze to tap into the net, but was ruled offside.
However when the ball next went into the net, unfortunately, it was ours that was rippled on 35 minutes. Pau Torres fired a cross that flicked off the head of Jurrien Timber and spun towards the back post, dropping invitingly to Cash to thump between Raya’s legs and hand the hosts the lead.
The better of the chances kept coming our way though, but we were lacking the execution needed to force Martinez into any real action. Ben White and Declan Rice both scuffed efforts at the former Gunner towards the end of the half as we went into the changing room behind.
Trossard again
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Arteta responded by sending on Viktor Gyokeres and Leandro Trossard at the break, and the latter nearly made an immediate impact when he connected well with an Odegaard cross but his volley flashed just wide, however on 52 minutes our super sub once again came up with the goods.
Saka won possession on the halfway line and, after exchanging passes with Odegaard, drove into the area. His cross-shot was palmed away by Martinez, but only into the path of Trossard who squeezed the ball over the line to score his 50th Premier League goal and, more importantly, restore parity.
But the momentum refused to swing our way as Villa showed why they’d lost just one of their previous 25 league encounters on their own turf since we defeated them 2-0 last August, and after a sustained period of pressure Raya did well to get down low and deny Watkins again as we struggled to clear our lines.
However Martinez was then forced to be at his best when Odegaard found himself with time and space to aim for the top corner and looked set to celebrate, but the Villa shot-stopper got the faintest of fingertips to just divert it over the crossbar.
Late heartbreak
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The game was on a real knife-edge at this point and another former Gunner in Donyell Marlen dragged the ball just wide of the far upright after capitalising on a miskick by Riccardo Calafiori, while in the second of four minutes of injury time Noni Madueke struck the sidenetting.
But just as it seemed as though we were returning south with a useful point, with seconds left a goalmouth scramble ensued that saw Raya make another good save, but we couldn’t clear our lines, with Buendia eventually given the chance to guide the ball into the net and condemn us to our first loss since August.
What's next
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We're back in action on Wednesday night when we travel to Club Brugge for our next Champions League game, before we return to Premier League action next Saturday when we host Wolves. We then have a week-long gap between games, as we then head to Everton on Saturday, December 20.
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