The Gunners were beaten twice by Villa last season; 1-0 at Villa Park and 2-0 at the Emirates Stadium.
Those results proved crucial in the Premier League title race and Arsenal had to show some improvement this time around.
was arguably the highlight for Arsenal but Leandro Trossard and Thomas Partey found the net to secure a 2-0 win.
It may still be August but this feels like a real statement win for Arsenal having encountered problems with Villa last season.
Arsenal were able to see out the game with another clean sheet, which has almost become the standard under Mikel Arteta.
The Spaniard made a change to his back line before kick-off as Jurrien Timber came in for Oleksandr Zinchenko at left back.
Timber isn’t quite ready for 90 minutes though and was introduced for the final stages.
Calafiori was handed his Arsenal debut as a substitute and made himself immediately popular with Gunners fans by clashing with Emiliano Martinez.
The Italian wasn’t troubled too much on his Premier League debut but he did enough to earn praise from pundit Gary Neville.
Speaking on the Neville noted that Calafiori ‘looked combative’ and ‘really strong’ in his cameo against Villa.
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