Arsenal v Aston Villa

Arsenal v villa
Villa park
17:45

Wow...day before the game and no thread.....

Anyway hoping for a nice straight forward win to keep ourselves on the high..another clean sheet is first stop for us and will quite happily take a 2-0

Team news..

Aston Villa striker Darren Bent is fit to face Arsenal after a three-game absence due to an ankle injury.

Full-back Eric Lichaj is also available after a leg muscle strain but Joe Bennett, Chris Herd, Charles N'Zogbia and Richard Dunne are still out.

Arsenal forward Theo Walcott is ruled out with a shoulder injury, while Andre Santos has a stomach problem.

Gervinho and Kieran Gibbs are in contention after overcoming respective ankle and thigh injuries.


MATCH PREVIEW

It's the final leg of a fearful three in a row for Villa, with nothing to show from their last two games against the Manchester giants.

Nothing to show in terms of points, but they put on a superb show for much of the match against United two weeks ago until youthful exuberance caved in to a Mexican masterclass from Javier Hernandez after half-time.

City then steamrollered them in the second half at the Etihad last week, and I wonder if fading as games go on is to do with Villa being such a young, inexperienced side right now?

If only matches lasted 45 minutes! The Premier League's 'first-half table' currently sees Villa in fifth place: W5 D4 L3. Taking only the second half into account they'd sit 17th: W2 D3 L7. Goals complete the picture, with 17 of the 22 they've conceded coming after half-time - the highest percentage of any team.

Arsenal go the other way. They've been outscored just once in the second half this season whilst only being ahead at half-time in three of 12 league games. They are also the only team that hasn't conceded a single goal in the final 15 minutes of matches.

The Gunners have had a good week - a thumping North London derby win followed by reaching the Champions League knock-out stages for the 13th successive season. Lukas Podolski's volley against Montpellier had, dare I say, more than a touch of the van Persie's about it, and with Giroud and Walcott scoring too you could argue that they're gelling to be a side with more all-round firepower than they had with the Dutchman.

Arsene Wenger has lost just three of 32 games against Villa as Arsenal boss, and I'd be surprised if there's a fourth defeat this weekend. A point would surely be a bonus one for Villa before key games against Reading, QPR and Stoke


MATCH FACTS

Head-to-head

Aston Villa haven't beaten Arsenal at home in 13 attempts since coming from two goals down to win 3-2 in December 1998 (D6, L7). Arsenal have lost only two of their subsequent 27 league meetings with Villa. The Gunners also overturned a 2-0 deficit in the FA Cup fourth round last season to beat Villa 3-2 at the Emirates Stadium.

Arsenal have recorded their lowest points tally after 12 matches under Arsene Wenger. They last fared worse in the 1994-95 season, when they had 18 points from the first 12 games. The Gunners conceded just seven goals in their opening nine matches in all competitions but have let in 18 goals in their last 10 fixtures. Nonetheless, they are the only team yet to concede in the final 15 minutes of a Premier League match this season. Olivier Giroud has scored five goals in his last six appearances for Arsenal in all competitions, including four in the last four. Lukas Podolski is the only player in the Premier League to be substituted in all 12 of his side's matches this season.

--------------------SZCZESNY-----------------
SAGNA--=MERTESACKER----VERMAELEN---GIBBS
ARTETA-------------CAZORLA--------WILSHERE
CHAMBERLAIN--------GIROUD---------PODOLSKI

That's my prediction of the lineup against Villa. Gervinho to make an appearance in the later stages of the match. I think it'll be a nice 3-0 win for us.

time to get that run of consecutive wins.hoping Bent doesn't feature.he always has a knack of scoring against us.

Bent scares me, and lately I've been watching a few Villa games, Benteke seems like the player that can cause damage to us. Weimann doesn't seem like a bad player as well. Not saying each one is Xavi, Iniesta, and Messi, but still if we don't come out all guns blazing we can drop points, and that's really not what we need right now. We should win and make a small winning streak. A clean sheet would do well too. 2-0 would be perfect, but I'm seeing more of a 2-1 victory. Giroud and Cazrola on the score sheet.

I think Jack may be rested for this one, with Coquelin/Ramsey in his place. I would like to see Wenger taking off important players if we have a comfortable lead with 30mins to go.

Coquelin has really disappointed me this season. After a fine first season with us, I thought he would add to that, he has gone backwards, or at best, stalled in his development.

ralph avedikian wrote:I think Jack may be rested for this one, with Coquelin/Ramsey in his place. I would like to see Wenger taking off important players if we have a comfortable lead with 30mins to go.

I think more probably Santi or Mikel. Jack needs minutes under his belt whereas Im really worried Carzola or Arteta are going to get fatigued before xmas and then pick up a long term injury in March

Arsenal XI - Szczesny; Jenkinson Mertesacker Koscielny Gibbs; Arteta Ramsey; Chamberlain Cazorla Podolski; Giroud

Bent not in the 18 man squad for Villa! Relief

Subs: Mannone, Sagna, Vermaelen, Wilshere, Coquelin, Arshavin, Gervinho
That's some bench! We should win this game! 3-1 for us

Some balls from Wenger to bench Vermaelen! Maybe he's resting him, but still, I like that! That said, Vermaelen did have a good game against Spurs, didn't watch the Montpellier.

Dropping our captain wow, ballsy!

Even though they dont have Bent, Benteke is the kind of Striker we tend to struggle against, I still have nightmares about Grant Holt

Chris Chan wrote:

Even though they dont have Bent, Benteke is the kind of Striker we tend to struggle against, I still have nightmares about Grant Holt

"Benteke seems like the player that can cause damage to us." Makes the two of us then!

Positive movement in the first 5 minutes.

we're trying to be too cute in these conditions lots of mistakes in our own half

what is podolski doing? villa arent going to give us any time on the ball first half

Feels like its all Villa now.

struggling against one of the mosy awful teams in the league, heh, seems just like us.

Jason Morrison wrote:struggling against one of the mosy awful teams in the league, heh, seems just like us.

We take playing fair to a whole new level.

Mertesacker looks in trouble =(

better

podolski has been pretty shit so far

Lucky escape.

Jeez the weather sure isn't helping the quality of play...

lucky because that was horrible marking

Conditions are awful, not going to help us one bit.