MY ACCOUNT
Early leaders Arsenal will be aiming to extend their perfect start to the season to five games when they entertain struggling Aston Villa.
A promising pre-season has turned sour for Villa manager Steven Gerrard.
The club landed three exciting signings early in the transfer window, making Philippe Coutinho’s loan move permanent, bringing in Diego Carlos from Sevilla and beating a host of clubs to the signature of highly-rated midfielder Boubacar Kamara.
Friendly performances were promising, too, with victory over Leeds and a draw against a full-strength Manchester United side giving Villa supporters hope that their team would fly out of the traps.
But then the season proper started. The Villans lost tamely at Bournemouth and Crystal Palace, handed West Ham their first points of the season and were unconvincing in their only victory, clinging on to a 2-1 home win against a poor Everton side.
Worse still, Carlos ruptured his Achilles tendon, Coutinho has been a shadow of his former self and performances have been so poor that the Villa fans booed their team off after losing to West Ham.
Now they have a double header against Manchester City at the weekend after this midweek trip to top-of-the-table Arsenal.
Team news
Arsenal pair Thomas Partey and Oleksandr Zinchenko could again miss out with their respective knee and thigh injuries as manager Mikel Arteta will want to give them every chance of recovering in time for the weekend clash against Manchester United.
However, Arteta has suffered a blow with the news that Partey’s first-choice back-up, Mohamed Elneny, picked up an injury last weekend which could potentially rule him out for a significant period.
He is joined on the sidelines by youngster Reiss Nelson, who will be out until October with a thigh injury.
Gerrard will be without Carlos until February but will hope to have fellow centre-back Tyrone Mings available after he missed Sunday’s defeat to West Ham through illness.
While the Aston Villa manager may have only one absentee he may again decide to make several changes to his starting XI following a season of disjointed displays.
The stats
Kicking off with four consecutive victories makes this Arsenal’s best start since 2004-05, when Arsene Wenger’s team began the season with five wins, a draw and then another three wins.
Arteta could not have asked for a more favourable fixture as he tries to match that five-game winning start, with Arsenal beating Aston Villa in nine of their last 12 meetings.
While the Villans did claim three consecutive victories against the Gunners in 2020 and 2021, normal service was resumed last season when Arsenal won 1-0 at Villa Park and 3-1 at the Emirates.
That 3-1 win for Arsenal made it 11 consecutive meetings between the clubs in north London that at least three goals have been scored, with five of the last six head-to-heads featuring four goals or more.
Prediction
With Gerrard’s Villa side looking tactically uncertain and bereft of confidence, this clash at the Emirates looks a home banker.
Arteta’s men have had a kind start to the season in terms of the quality of opposition they have come up against, but they have again shown themselves to be highly adept at polishing off weaker teams.
Gabriel Jesus’ move to north London has worked perfectly for both parties, with the Brazilian flourishing as a regular starter for a manager who trusts him and Arsenal gaining both creativity around the box and a clinical edge in front of goal.
The potential unavailability of Partey and Zinchenko allied to Elneny’s confirmed absence could be an issue for Arsenal when they face Manchester United at the weekend but Kieran Tierney and Albert Sambi Lokonga are able deputies who should be more than good enough against out-of-form Villa.
Villa’s last away trip saw them concede a whopping 3.1 expected goals against Crystal Palace and they even managed to offer 1.4 expected goals to a struggling Everton side on home soil.
Against a team as clinical as the Gunners – who have scored 11 goals from chances with a combined xG rating of just 7.8 this term – it could get messy for Villa, who look set to be on the wrong end of another high-scoring encounter at the Emirates.
