Aston Villa look to build from Wednesday’s victory over Manchester City and continue their winning run at home as they host Mikel Arteta’s Arsenal in match-day 15 of the Premier League.
Here’s the latest heading into this evening’s game at Villa Park…
Words by: Liam Davies
THE BUILD UP
Aston Villa look to maintain their impressive home winning run tonight as they host top of the table Arsenal in the Premier League. The Gunners were the last side to beat Emery’s men on home soil, defeating the Villans by four goals to two back in February, despite the hosts taking the leading twice that afternoon.
The West-Midlands outfit enter the game invigorated and full of confidence, having defeated Pep Guardiola’s treble-winning Manchester City by a goal to nil on Wednesday night. The claret and blue side were dominant in mid-week as the Sky Blue visitors produced only two shots at Emi Martinez’s goal all evening.
Jamaican winger Leon Bailey was the difference-maker, his 74th minute deflected effort capped off a fine display from the in-form number 31; a performance that won the 26-year-old the man of the match accolade.
This result pushed Villa ahead of City and into third in the Premier League, behind only Jürgen Klopp’s Liverpool and their weekend opponents, Arsenal, who sit pretty at the top of the division.
Last time out for the Gunners was a visit to Kenilworth Road to face newly-promoted Luton Town on Tuesday night. The visitors opened the scoring in the 20th minute through Gabriel Martinelli, before defender Gabriel Osho’s equaliser just five minutes later.
Gabriel Jesus put the Gunners back in-front before the break but a quickfire double from the Hatters to begin the second-half dramatically put Rob Edwards’ side ahead against the table-toppers.
German midfielder Kai Havertz would make it 3-3 around the hour mark and Declan Rice, scoring his third goal in Arsenal colours, scored a 97th minute winner to claim three points on the road.
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Unai Emery is looking for his side to continue Wednesday’s performance against the champions into today’s game against last term’s runners-up, highlighting the significance of consistency and ambition at the top level.
On his approach and the mentality of his side ahead of tonight’s home fixture, he said: “I’m going to be very deeply analysing how we can face the match tomorrow hopefully being better in our performances individually and collectively.
TEAM NEWS
ASTON VILLA
Unai Emery will assess his Aston Villa side for injuries and concerns heading into this evening’s big game at Villa Park.
The team trained yesterday at Bodymoor Heath in preparation for today’s game and 52-year-old head coach spoke about monitoring his player’s fitness levels amid a busy, festive period.
On the condition of his squad, Emery said: “We had to rest a lot after the match we played on Wednesday, we (also) played on Sunday and last Thursday.
“And the players at the beginning, we are not having a lot of information about some injuries.
Defender Tyrone Mings and midfielder Emi Buendía remain the team’s long-term absentees with the knee injuries suffered at the start of the season, while winger Bertrand Traoré misses out again with that knock sustained during the recent international break.
ARSENAL
Mikel Arteta will be without defender Takehiro Tomiyasu for today’s game in the West-Midlands and for the foreseeable future after the Japanese international suffered a recent calf injury following the mid-week clash with Luton Town.
Tomiyasu joins a list of four other Gunners unavailable for this match-day 15 encounter between Villa and Arsenal. He is side-lined with midfielders Thomas Partey (muscle), Emile Smith Rowe (knee) and Fábio Vieira (groin), and fellow defender Jurrien Timber who is set to miss the majority of the season with an ACL injury.
Elsewhere, manager Mikel Arteta will serve a touch-line ban tonight after picking up three yellow cards throughout the Premier League season so far.
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A BIT ON ARSENAL…
Arsenal have made a positive start to the 2023/24 Premier League campaign, mirroring that of last season. The Gunners sit two points clear of second-place Liverpool and four points clear of their weekend opposition Aston Villa, who occupy third, heading into today’s action.
Last season’s runners-up began the term with a Community Shield victory and have defeated the likes of Manchester United, Manchester City and Brentford in the league. The North-London outfit have shown vulnerabilities at times however, falling to defeat against Newcastle United in the Premier League and West Ham in the Carabao Cup.
Elsewhere, in the UEFA Champions League, Arteta’s side are safely through to the knockout stages, coming out on top of Group B against PSV, RC Lens and Sevilla, with a game to spare.
Mikel Arteta was very complimentary of the work of his predecessor, Unai Emery, and his Aston Villa side heading into this evening’s game.
Speaking on his Basque counterpart and his match-day 15 opposition, the former Everton and Paris Saint-Germain midfielder said: “Huge credit to them, huge credit to Unai and the coaching staff for what they’ve done. “They’ve turned things around, the way they play, they’re going to be a really tough opponent.
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MY PREDICTED LINE-UP
Let’s take a look at my predicted line-up for this upcoming fixture against the Gunners…
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