Arsenal vs Aston Villa

Emirates Stadium is the venue as Arsenal and Aston Villa go head-to-head in a mid-table Premier League clash.

Despite being held to a 2-2 home draw to Crystal Palace last time out, Arsenal are on an eye-catching five-game unbeaten Premier League streak (W3, D2), which represents a significant turnaround from their early showings this term. Having picked themselves up from a humiliating three-game losing start to this Premier League campaign, the ‘Gunners’ are now gunning for their first top-flight H2H triumph since September 2019. Indeed, they have lost their last three such match-ups without scoring, including an embarrassing 3-0 victory in this exact fixture in 2020/21. Regardless of which side of the spectrum of supporting these sides you stand on, we could be in for a treat here, as each of the last nine Premier League meetings between Arsenal and Villa at the Emirates has featured 3+ overall goals.

On the other hand, the visitors have suffered a dip in form of late, going from a run of two straight Premier League victories to back-to-back league losses. Barring a hard-earned 1-0 win over Manchester United at Old Trafford in late September, Aston Villa have lost each of their remaining three Premier League away matches this season, conceding 2+ goals on each occasion. By extension, Dean Smith’s men have suffered five defeats across their last eight Premier League road trips (W3), as many reverses as they had in their 17 top-flight travels beforehand (W7, D5, L5). However, Villa will put their hopes of improving upon their dismal recent away form into Smith’s hands, with the current manager in charge winning all but one of his four managerial matches against Arsenal in the Premier League (L1).