🕟 Kick Off: 12:30 GMT

🏟️ Venue: Villa Park

📺 UK Broadcaster: TNT Sports

🙎🏻‍♂️ Referee: Peter Bankes

📹 VAR: Darren England

🔴 Arsenal Team News:

• Declan Rice: Calf injury from the Brentford match; fitness uncertain with final checks ongoing.
• Cristhian Mosquera: Ankle (or knee) issue after limping off vs Brentford; could sideline him for 6+ weeks.
• William Saliba: Knock from training; expected back in a matter of days.
• Leandro Trossard: Calf/muscle problem from Bayern Munich game; potential return soon.
• Gabriel Magalhães: Thigh injury; out for weeks, likely until late December.
• Kai Havertz: Knee injury; definitely unavailable and longer-term absence.​

⚽ Arsenal Form: 🟩🟧🟩🟩🟧

🦁 Aston Villa Team News:

• Tyrone Mings: Hamstring/thigh injury; confirmed out and not expected back for several weeks.
• Ross Barkley: Knee injury; ruled out for at least two months and will miss the Arsenal game.
• Emiliano Martinez: Back problem felt in the warm-up vs Brighton; remains a doubt and will face a late fitness test.​

⚽ Aston Villa Form: 🟩🟩🟩🟩🟩

⚔️ Head-to-Head:

• Arsenal 2-2 Aston Villa (18 Jan 2025, Premier League)
• Aston Villa 0-2 Arsenal (24 Aug 2024, Premier League)
• Arsenal 0-2 Aston Villa (14 Apr 2024, Premier League)
• Aston Villa 1-0 Arsenal (9 Dec 2023, Premier League)
• Aston Villa 2-4 Arsenal (18 Feb 2023, Premier League)

📖 Match Facts:

• Aston Villa haven’t lost a game since losing 2-0 to Liverpool on the 1st of November.
• Aston Villa haven’t lost at home all season, with their last loss being a 0-3 to Crystal Palace on the 31st of August.
• Mikel Arteta has a record of P11 W5 D1 L5 against Aston Villa as a manager, which ranks among his worst return against Premier Leage clubs.

✍🏼 Pre-Match Ramblings

There isn’t much worse in the Premier League than playing the early kick off on Saturday. One thing that is certainly worse than playing the early kick off, is playing the early kick off away against a bogey club having played three days prior in a game in which we lost one of two fit centrebacks for six weeks, with Rice going off injured pending a fitness test.

The injury curse which must have been placed on us continued to work it’s dark magic against Brentford, leaving us with one centre back who is definitely fit in Hincapie. Luckily Ben White has returned to first team football and looks close to his best, and he will likely be called on again against Villa. Declan Rice and William Saliba face late fitness tests ahead of our trip to the West Midlands, with the availability of either of them being a huge boost to Mikel Arteta.

Aston Villa had an appalling start to this league campaign with zero goals scored in their first handful of games, but their form has improved to a point where they sit in third place, 1 point behind City and 6 points behind us. A win here will take us 9 clear of Villa and 8 ahead of City who host Sunderland a few hours later (they’ll probably win).