The suspended Mikel Arteta could only watch on as his side were undone by John McGinn's early goal. And with Liverpool winning earlier in the day, the north London side now trail the Reds by a point with the sides set to meet at Anfield on December 23.
But prior to that the Gunners host PSV on Tuesday, having already qualified for the last-16 of the Champions League. A game of greater importance comes on Sunday when Arteta's side host Brighton, and Arsenal can ill-afford to lose any more ground on their title rivals.
Here's a round-up of the latest news from the Emirates.....
Odegaard sends "ruthless" warning
Arsenal skipper Martin Odegaard had a simple message after the 1-0 defeat by Aston Villa: “We need to be more ruthless.”
In a game where he missed two golden opportunities to equalise, the Norwegian said: "We missed a few big changes - it’s an annoying and frustrating one.
“We have to focus on ourselves. We can’t think too much about the other stuff. We have to look at ourselves, look at what we could have done better, especially in front of goal where we really should have done better. Some periods of the game, we could have controlled it a bit more, too. We have to be more ruthless.”
Martin Odegaard of Arsenal reacts during the match at Aston Villa
Lineker backtracks on VAR comments
Gary Lineker has hit out at VAR following Arsenal's 1-0 loss to Aston Villa on Saturday, admitting he 'feels quite guilty' for advocating it in the first place.
Analysing the disallowed goal for Kai Havertz, ruled out for handball he said: "The ball is so close to everybody. It's hit Matty Cash's hand, it's hit Havertz's hand, but the law says it cannot hit your hand anywhere and it's the most ridiculous law. The defenders can accidentally handball it but the forwards can't."
Doubling down on his rant, he added: "Why are we trying to stop goals? The people who make the laws of the game, why are they doing that? Really bizarre."
Wright takes swipe at Man Utd fans
Few anticipated Manchester United's defeat against Bournemouth on Saturday, but former Arsenal star Ian Wright was left feeling smug after backing the Cherries to get something at Old Trafford.
"I don't think United are beating Bournemouth," Wright said in the build-up, on the Stick to Football show on YouTube. "I just trust my feelings." Gary Neville then told Wright "If they lose to Bournemouth on Saturday you've got a problem."
Sure enough, Wright was proved right and that very problem emerged. Resharing the video and tagging Neville and Jamie Carragher, he gleefully told the pair that United fans "were cooking me in the comments".
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