London: Arsenal’s Premier League title challenge was hit on Saturday after Emiliano Buendia struck in stoppage-time to seal a 2-1 win for Aston Villa, APA reports. Villa cut the gap to first-place Arsenal to three points and gave Manchester City the chance to close in on Mikel Arteta’s team. Buendia fired into the roof of the net in the fifth minute of added time at Villa Park to leave the visitors stunned.

According to Azeri-Press News Agency, it was the third time in succession that Arsenal has dropped points away from home after recent draws with Sunderland and Chelsea. Those results have opened the door to rivals like City and Villa to put pressure on at the top. Villa provisionally moved up to second in the standings after a ninth win from its last 10 games. That was after a dire start to the campaign when Unai Emery’s team was winless after five games.

Matty Cash, who put Villa ahead in the 36th, stated, ‘At the minute we’re on a great run. We know it’s not even Christmas yet, so we have to keep being demanding, keep being consistent, and then we’ll see where it takes us.’ Leandro Trossard was a halftime substitute for Arsenal and he made a quick impact by leveling the game seven minutes after the break. Buendia came on in the 87th and proved an inspired substitution – lifting a shot past Arsenal goalkeeper David Raya.

Buendia expressed his delight after the match, saying, ‘We fight until the last minute, the last second, it was a really incredible win.’ It was only Arsenal’s second loss of the season and its first since a 1-0 defeat at Liverpool in August. Mikel Arteta, reflecting on the defeat, said, ‘We are 18 games unbeaten, and yet still the margin is so small. We have to focus on ourselves and set the standards that today, particularly, individually we didn’t raise that level. The effort was absolutely there and use that pain to go again.’