🕟 Kick Off: 17:30 BST

📍 Location: Villa Park, Birmingham

📺 UK Broadcaster: Sky Sports

🙎🏻‍♂️ Referee: Michael Oliver

🔴 Arsenal Team News:

• Tierney and Tomiyasu are out with longer term injuries, return dates unknown.
• Fabio Vieira is a doubt with a hip injury.

⚽ Arsenal Form: 🟩🟩🟩🟥🟩

🟣 Aston Villa Team News:

• Kamara and Mings are absent with longer term inuries, due back later in the year.
• Olsen is a doubt with a head injury.

⚽ Aston Villa Form: 🟩🟥🟩🟥🟥

📖 Match Facts:

• Aston Villa were the only team to do the double over Arsenal last season in the Premier League.
• In their last two times facing eachother, Arsenal had more possession and more expected goals (xG), but lost both games.

🎲 Odds (Betway):

• Aston Villa – 31/40
• Draw – 3/1
• Arsenal – 3/1

✍🏼 Pre-Match Ramblings

Had Arsenal beaten Aston Villa once last season, they might just have won the league. The significance of this fixture has been made unnecessarily big due to the results Unai Emery has managed to achieve against the team he failed to make his mark at. It was frustrating watching Emery’s Villa make heavy rotations for their game against City, whilst going full strength against us weeks later. It is hard to deny that Unai Emery affords heavy attention to these matches.

A position to watch this weekend is that of Left Back. Timber was a second half substitute for Zinchenko, and immediately looked sharp. I would not be surprised at all to see Timber start a league game for the first time since the first game of last season. I don’t need to talk about Zinchenko’s defensive shortcomings, as this is a well trodden path.

Aston Villa, as they have done in previous years, have invested heavily this summer, outspending Arsenal significantly. They spent around £50m on Amadou Onana who was a standout in an otherwise poor Everton team; Arsenal were consistently linked with Onana over the last few transfer windows. The Belgian started and scored against West Ham last weekend in a big opening weekend win for the Brummies.

One thing is for sure: this will be a tough game. Unai Emery loves playing against Arsenal, he relishes it. The heightened importance of this game is not something Arsenal needs to have on their mind. This is a good Aston Villa team, but we are a great Arsenal team – a victory is non-negotiable here.