Arsenal host Aston Villa at Emirates Stadium in a midweek Premier League clash.
Victory would see Arsenal stay top of the table for a third consecutive matchweek, whereas Villa can avoid the risk of falling into the relegation zone with a win.
Team News
Mohamed Elneny is ruled out for Arsenal with a hamstring injury which he suffered in Saturday’s win over Fulham.
Oleksandr Zinchenko (knee) is a doubt but Thomas Partey (quadricep) and Reiss Nelson (muscle) are ruled out.
Villa could welcome Tyrone Mings back after he missed Sunday’s defeat to West Ham through illness.
Diego Carlos remains absent with an Achilles injury.
Stat Attack
- Arsenal have won two of their last five meetings against Aston Villa (W2, L3).
- Villa have won just one of their last five visits to Arsenal (W1, L4).
- Two of Arsenal’s four goals against Villa last season were scored by English players – Emile Smith Rowe and Bukayo Saka who both scored once each.
- Gabriel Jesus has collected two goals and yellow cards apiece in four appearances for Arsenal this season.
- No Villa player this season has made more interceptions than Matty Cash (9).
Prediction
Having found themselves frustrated against Fulham at the weekend with wasted chances and a poorly conceded opener, Arsenal’s talent certainly showed in how they fought back to win with two clinical goals.
I however do have concerns about whether their defensive issues are slowly creeping back in as it’s their seventh home match without a clean sheet, which is a slight worry because they won’t be as lucky as they were against Fulham at one point in the future against another team.
Villa though shouldn’t pose much issues if they again lack creativity which proved costly in Sunday’s defeat against West Ham, because they just lacked the ability to mix up their end product to beat the Hammers despite excellent attacking moves to create chances.
Now if we see more of that sloppy finishing to impressive attacking play from Villa and Arsenal can polish their own end product, I can see just one winner and perhaps a rare clean sheet at home of this calendar year to boot.
Prediction: Arsenal 2-0 Aston Villa
Result: Arsenal 2-1 Aston Villa