BRUGES: The Premier League’s contenders suffered a double setback in the Champions League with defeats for Aston Villa in Belgium and Arsenal in Italy.

Villa conceded a bizarre penalty in a 1-0 loss at Club Brugge which ended their perfect start to the Champions League group stage and left Tyrone Mings with a red face.

What had been a lethargic performance for Villa turned absurd in the 52nd minute when Mings inexplicably picked up the ball, believing it was not in play.

Villa keeper Emi Martinez had just lined up a goal kick, sending a short pass to Mings, who then scooped up the ball and gave it back to the Argentinian. The referee pointed to the penalty spot, and Hans Vanaken converted, to the delight of the crowd at Jan Breydel Stadium.

Villa defender Ezri Konsa said: “To be honest I didn’t see it. I just saw the players running to the refs saying ‘handball’. It’s just one of those ones, it killed the game. If it is a handball, deliberate, then (Mings) should get a second yellow, he’s on a yellow already so why not send him off for that then?

“I think it killed the game, it’s a mistake but it’s not a mistake that we (usually) make. Look, it happened, there’s nothing we can do, just got to move on from it.”

Unai Emery’s side, who had won their opening three games of their first appearance in Europe’s elite club competition in 41 years, have nine points after four matches, leaving Liverpool top of the table as the only team with a 100% record. Brugge moved provisionally up to 20th in the table on six points.

“The second half, the mistake changed everything, a team like (Brugge), they are playing at home, defensively strong, they then focus 100% to stop us, they were better than us,” Emery said.

It was an unfortunate Champions League debut for Mings, who recently returned after being out for 445 days due to a knee injury. The penalty was the only goal Villa have conceded in their European club competition campaign.

Arsenal got away with a similarly bizarre handball in a Champions League game against Bayern Munich last season when Gabriel picked up the ball to give it back to keeper David Raya.

Beyond the handball incident, the Belgian champions were the better side on the night. Villa’s World Cup-winning keeper Martinez was pressed into action early by Brugge, who had seven shots on target to the Premier League club’s one, and made several key saves to keep his team in the game.

Ferran Jutgla was denied by the post before Christos Tzolis pounced on the rebound sending in a low hard shot that the Argentinian keeper pushed away with his finger tips after diving at full stretch.

Mings side-footed Casper Nielsen’s header off the goal line, and then Martinez was forced to make a diving save again from Ardon Jashari’s shot from the rebound.

Villa’s John McGinn had a terrific first-half chance after Boubacar Kamara drove into the space before sending a looping ball over the top to McGinn at the back post, but the Villa captain’s header was just off target.

Villa’s loss was the latest in a string of disappointing performances for Emery’s side, who suffered a 4-1 league loss to Tottenham on Sunday on the heels of being eliminated from the League Cup by Crystal Palace.

Arsenal, too

Internazionale’s Hakan Calhanoglu maintained his incredible penalty record as his spot-kick secured a gritty 1-0 victory for the Italians over Arsenal.

Neither side had conceded a goal in their opening three games in the competition but Arsenal’s defence was finally breached in unfortunate fashion on the stroke of halftime after a harsh handball decision against Mikel Merino.

The lethal Calhanoglu duly found the back of the net to take his record to 19 out of 19 penalties scored in all competitions since joining Inter.

Arsenal laid siege to the Inter goal in the second half with Kai Havertz denied by home keeper Yann Sommer and having another effort deflected just wide, but Inter defended superbly to move to 10 points from four games.

Mikel Arteta’s Arsenal had 14 goal attempts in the second half but lacked creativity and are now outside the top eight automatic qualifiers for the knockout phase with seven points.

Arteta was left frustrated as he felt his side also should have had a penalty for what he thought was a foul on Merino by Sommer.

“I am very proud of my players, the level of domination we had. We were very harshly done by in the sense that is obvious,” he said. “If you are going to give a penalty, the other one has to be a 100% penalty because he punched him in the head.”

The first meeting between the clubs for 21 years began with Inter on top and they were denied an early goal when Denzil Dumfries thumped a ferocious shot against the crossbar.

Calhanoglu went close before the game turned into a cagey affair with neither side taking risks.

Arsenal had looked comfortable but were cursing their luck when Merino was adjudged to have blocked a flick-on by Mehdi Taremi and Romanian referee Istvan Kovacs pointed to the spot.

A VAR check could not save Arsenal and there was never any doubt that penalty wizard Calhanoglu would beat David Raya.

Inter were content to soak up pressure in the second half with Arsenal lacking the invention to break them down.

The closest the visitors came to equalising was when Dumfries cleared the ball off the line following a corner.

Arsenal have now won only two of their last six games in all competitions, although the sight of captain Martin Odegaard coming off the bench after a lengthy injury absence offered a silver lining for the travelling fans in the San Siro.

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