John McGinn scored the only goal of the game as Aston Villa beat title hopefuls Arsenal 1-0 to move to within two points of the Premier League summit courtesy of a club record 15th-straight home league win.
Aston Villa closed to within two points of the top of the Premier League as John McGinn's goal beat title rivals Arsenal 1-0 on Saturday (Dec 9). Unai Emery's men have now won 15 consecutive Premier Leagues at Villa Park and back-to-back victories over Manchester City and the Gunners have sparked hopes of an unexpected challenge for their first title since 1981. The only goal came after just seven minutes when Villa captain McGinn span onto Leon Bailey's cross and fired into the top corner.
Arsenal's second league defeat of the season leaves Mikel Arteta's men one point behind Liverpool, who went top with a controversial 2-1 win at Crystal Palace earlier on Saturday.
Arteta was forced to watch from the stands as he served a touchline ban and had to restrain himself after the game when asked about a couple of controversial incidents.
Arsenal thought they should have had a penalty in the second half when Gabriel Jesus went down under a challenge from Douglas Luiz.
And Kai Havertz had a late goal disallowed for handball.
Victory was sweet for Emery, who was sacked by Arsenal four years ago. The Spaniard has made a remarkable impact at Villa, since his return to England over a year ago.
