[Pre-Match Thread] Arsenal vs Aston Villa | 18th January 2025 | Premier League
π Kick Off: 17:30 GMT
π Location: Emirates Stadium, North London
πΊ UK Broadcaster: Sky Sports
ππ»ββοΈ Referee: Chris 'I had no choice' Kavanagh
π΄ Arsenal Team News:
- Calafiori has missed the past 2 games with a muscular injury and is a doubt for this game.
- Jesus has torn his ACL and will be out for up to a year.
- Nwaneri (muscular) is out with a mid-term injury.
- Saka (hamstring) is recovering from surgery and will be out for the next few months.
- Tomiyasu (knee) is an enigma and we havenβt received an update on him for weeks.
- Ben White (knee) is recovering from surgery and will be absent for the foreseeable.
β½ Arsenal Form: π©π§π₯π§π©
π£ Aston Villa Team News:
- Carlos is a doubt with a foot injury.
- Torres will miss the game with a foot injury.
- McGinn is out with a hamstring issue.
- Barkley is absent with a calf injury.
β½ Aston Villa Form: π©π©π©π§π₯
βοΈ Head-to-Head:
- Aston Villa 0-2 Arsenal (24th Aug 2024, Premier League)
- Arsenal 0-2 Aston Villa (14th Apr 2024, Premier League)
- Aston Villa 1-0 Arsenal (9th Dec 2023, Premier League)
- Aston Villa 2-4 Arsenal (18th Feb 2023, Premier League)
- Arsenal 2-1 Aston Villa (31st Aug 2022, Premier League)
π Match Facts:
- Emery has faced Arsenal 8 times as a manager, with a record of 3W3D2L.
- Aston Villa have an away record of 4W1D5L this season with a GD of -7.
- Arsenal haven't lost a league game at home this season, but have lost twice in cup competitions at the Emirates.
π² Odds (Betway):
- Arsenal β 19/40
- Draw β 100/30
- Aston Villa - 11/2
βπΌ Pre-Match Ramblings
This is a fixture that has been terribly hard to predict as of late with Unai Emery turning Aston Villa into an incredibly well coached team with some great players. Last season Villa did the double over us, and tomorrow we look for revenge by doing the same thing against them this time around.
Back in August we had a goal from Trossard just 2 minutes after he was subbed on. Can he score in consecutive games following his fantastic strike against Spurs? I hope so. We are still short in attack so it's likely that he will start against Villa. We dominated possession against Villa in August with 61% possession, but we struggled to create and ended the game with just 0.87xG. You have to imagine we would need to create more chances to beat them again, especially with our recent goalscoring woes.
Liverpool face a tough away fixture at Brentford a few hours before we play tomorrow. Should they drop any points, we could be looking at an opportunity to move within 2 points of the league leaders. We held our own under the pressure of the NLD after dropped points from Liverpool, lets hope we can do it again so soon after a big midweek victory.