Aston Villa continue their fight for a top-ten finish as Steven Gerrard’s Villains host Arsenal at Villa Park.
Victory would see Villa stay ninth in the table, whereas Arsenal can stay fourth with a win and move four points clear of fifth-placed Manchester United.
Team News
Calum Chambers is a doubt for Aston Villa after suffering a knock in last Sunday’s defeat at West Ham.
Douglas Luiz (mouth) is also doubtful but Lucas Digne (hamstring), Kortney Hause (abdominal) and Marvelous Nakamba (knee) are ruled out.
Arsenal have no fresh injury concerns to report after Wednesday’s defeat against Liverpool as Takehiro Tomiyasu remains absent with a calf injury.
Stat Attack
- Aston Villa have won three of their last five Premier League meetings against Arsenal (W3, L2).
- Arsenal have lost each of their last two visits to Aston Villa by 1-0 results (L2), with both goals coming in first half by Trezeguet and Ollie Watkins respectively.
- None of Villa’s last 12 league meetings against Arsenal have ended in a draw (W4, L8).
- Philippe Coutinho has scored in three of his four appearances at home for Villa since joining on loan in January.
- Gabriel Martinelli has hit the woodwork on more occasions than any other Arsenal player in the Premier League this season, having hit the woodwork on three separate occasions.
Prediction
Despite suffering defeat at West Ham last weekend, Villa were simply wasteful of their chances because they did play well overall, although sloppy marking did prove costly in the end despite pulling a goal back in the closing minutes.
Arsenal meanwhile lost to Liverpool in midweek in a closely fought contest where two momentary lapses in defensive focus simply cost them a possible draw, so I am expecting them to come out fighting here given their current form.
Villa though look a much stronger team than when they last faced Arsenal and with Coutinho having added extra threat to their attack, this should be a closer battle than many might expect because I don’t see Villa getting another 1-0 home win.
This fixture though has lacked a draw in recent meetings but I have a feeling that we might see that type of result here, especially if both teams bring their best attacking game and Arsenal don’t have fatigue within their team.
Prediction: Aston Villa 1-1 Arsenal
Result: Aston Villa 0-1 Arsenal