Key events
Aston Villa make two changes to the team who found themselves four goals down after 31 minutes at Brighton last weekend. In come two debutants: goalkeeper Zion Suzuki and striker Nicolas Jackson. Marco Bizot drops to the bench, while João Gomes, sent off in that aforementioned debacle-by-the-sea, is suspended. Villa have three other potential debutants on their bench in Alejandro Garnacho, Matteo Ruggeri and Aaron Wan-Bissaka.
Arsenal, coming off the back of their three-goal win over Coventry, are unsurprisingly unchanged. Bruno Guimarães is back from injury and on the bench, waiting to make his first Premier League appearance for the Gunners … as is Ezri Konsa, a Villa player just ten days ago.
The teams
Aston Villa: Suzuki, Cash, Lindelof, Barkley, McGinn, Kamara, Buendia, Jackson, Torres, Mastsen, Hemmings.
Arsenal: Raya, White, Mosquera, Gabriel, Calafiori, Rice, Lewis-Skelly, Odegaard, Saka, Tzolis, Havertz.
Preamble
Premier League Matchweek Two (I’ve given up fighting it) concludes with perhaps the most intriguing game of the ten. Mikel Arteta looks to be entering his imperial phase with Arsenal: the reigning champions, widely expected to retain their crown, officially the second-best team in Europe with aspirations to go one better next year. And they started their campaign last week with a breezy 3-0 win over Coventry City. All good.
Aston Villa by contrast are in a state of turmoil. The side that came fourth last season and won Villa’s first major trophy for 30 years has since been stripped of most of its moving parts with extreme prejudice, and though replacement pieces have been ordered, what remained last weekend got thumped 4-0 at Brighton. Unai Emery will need to piece everything together in double-quick time to avoid things spiralling out of control.
Taking all that into consideration, all signs point to victory for the Gunners this evening. And that’s before we consider their record at Villa Park: 15 wins in the Premier League era, more than they’ve managed at any other away venue. But it’s never quite as simple as that, and Villa have won four of their last seven home games against tonight’s opponents, and their last three home fixtures against the reigning champions (Manchester City in 2023-24 and 2024-25, Liverpool last season). So that’s muddied the water a bit. Can Villa rebound from last weekend’s humiliation-by-the-sea, and in doing so spoil Arteta’s 250th Premier League match in charge? Or will Arsenal just keep on keepin’ on? We start finding out at 8pm BST. It’s on!