Saka settles gruelling battle with Aston Villa to extend Arsenal’s winning start

The smile on Declan Rice’s face a few minutes from time said it all. The Arsenal midfielder had just shut down Ian Maatsen as the Aston Villa full-back zoomed into the box. Arsenal were hardly imperious, Bukayo Saka scoring the only goal, but Unai Emery’s side struggled to hurt the champions, David Raya untroubled. The records will show Villa have lost their first two league matches of a season without scoring for the first time since 2002 but, despite successive defeats, this time there was no…