The best part of Arsenal's opening weekend wasn't even their match

Well that weekend could hardly have gone much better from an Arsenal perspective could it? On Friday night, to commence the new campaign, the champions swatted aside Coventry City with ease. Kai Havertz, Bukayo Saka and Martin Ødegaard all on target in a 3-0 win.

The following day, Manchester United were disastrous in defeat at Hull, before Tottenham were even worse as they were demolished by Brentford. On Sunday, Manchester City were far from convincing as they battled back to beat Bournemouth in injury time, before Liverpool required a 99th minute Dominik Szoboszlai spot-kick to salvage a draw at Newcastle.

Thus, and it is only week one, and Chelsea are yet to even play, but it does not appear as though any of those sides are likely to knock Arsenal off their perch.

More importantly though, the side Mikel Arteta's team will take on next were, to put it politely, far from impressive. On Sunday afternoon, Aston Villa travelled to the South Coast to take on a Brighton side who had been in Northernmost Norway, facing Tromsø in a Conference League qualifier just three days earlier. This should have given the Villans an advantage, but didn't seem to help very much.

Astonishingly, the Seagulls raced into a 4-0 lead inside 31 minutes. Victor Lindelöf's eighth minute own goal was calamitous, rather setting the tone, before Jack Hinshelwood scored twice in just 79 seconds. This was the earliest a side has been four goals up in an opening day Premier League fixture since Manchester United against Fulham two decades ago.

To compound Villa's calamitous first half, João Gomes was sent off on the cusp of the interval following VAR review. This made the Brazilian the first Premier League player to be sent off in the first half of their debut for any club since Samba Diakité of Queens Park Rangers in 2012. As a result, the defensive midfielder, who has just arrived from Wolves, will be suspended for three games.

Fabian Hürzeler's team took their foot off the gas after the break, turning their attention to the second leg against Tromsø, but the first half statistics make for alarming reading if you are a Villa fan.

Brighton 4-0 Aston Villa first half statistics

Note: All statistics courtesy of SofaScore.

At full time, Unai Emery marched down the tunnel, something Arsenal fans found very amusing, considering the 54 year old did exactly the same after his team got hammered at the Emirates in December, only to blame Arteta. Well, it is unlikely to get any easier for Emery and his team because next up, on Monday night, is a visit from the champions.

So, what has happened to Villa? Of the XI that started May's Europa League Final win over Freiburg in İstanbul, only Matty Cash, Victor Lindelöf, Pau Torres, John McGinn and Emi Buendía also started in Sussex on Sunday. Ezri Konsa, more on him in just a second, Lucas Digne, Youri Tielemans and Morgan Rogers have all been sold. Meantime, Emi Martínez and Ollie Watkins are pushing to leave too, while another key man Amadou Onana ruptured the anterior cruciate ligament at the World Cup.

To compound matters, new signings Johan Manzambi and Brian Madjo are both injured at the moment too, leaving Emery with a hodgepodge squad that lacks any balance, chemistry or, seemingly, quality. Thus, this is surely the ideal time for Arsenal to visit Villa Park.

New recruit Konsa was not signed in time to debut against Coventry, so could do so against the club he has just departed. Having said that, Benjamin White and Cristhian Mosquera were both impressive on Friday, so it'll be interesting to see if Arteta throws the 28 year old straight in from the start.

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