Key events
Today’s match officials
Referee: Peter Bankes
Assistants: Eddie Smart and Blake Antrobus
Fourth official: Adam Herczeg
VAR: Darren England
Assistant VAR: Mark Scholes
Aston Villa: Having failed to win any of their opening six Premier League matches, Unai Emery’s side have won eight of their last nine to catapult themselves up the table. Ben Fisher finds out where it all went right for today’s hosts …
Aston Villa v Arsenal line-ups
Aston Villa: Martinez, Cash. Konsa, Torres, Maatsen, Onana, Tielemans, Kamara, McGinn, Rogers, Watkins
Subs: Bizot, Lindelof, Digne, Garcia, Bogarde, Hemmings, Buendia, Malen, Sancho
Arsenal: Raya, White, Timber, Hincapie, Calafiori, Zubimendi, Rice, Odegaard, Saka, Eze, Merino
Subs: Arrizabalaga, Salmon, Martinelli, Gyokeres, Norgaard, Trossard, Madueke, Nwaneri, Lewis-Skelly.
Declan Rice and Emi Martinez both start
There’s good news for both teams, in so far as Arsenal midfielder Declan Rice has been passed fit to line up at Villa Park despite being forced off with seven minutes to go in Arsenal’s win over Brentford on Wednesday. Emi Martinez missed Villa’s victory over Brighton on the same evening but has also been deemed sufficiently fit to line up against his former club.
In considerably less good news for Arsenal, Gabriel and William Saliba remain absent from the heart of the visitors’ defence, while Cristhian Mosquera is also out. Bukayo Saka, Eberechi Eze and Jurrien Timber are all back in the side, while Mosquera, Noni Madueka and Gabriel Martinelli make way.
Unai Emery makes two changes to the Villa side that did so well against Brighton. Martinez is back between the sticks in place of Marco Bizot, while Youri Tielemans comes into the side with Evann Guessand dropping to the bench.
Early team news
Mikel Arteta was understandably coy upon being asked about the availability of Declan Rice and Cristhian Mosquera yesterday, saying “we’ll see, because every hour is important at this stage”. Gabriel is definitely out, while Arteta said the Brazilian’s centre-back partner William Saliba is “days away” from a return, much like Leandro Torrassard. Kai Havertz remains sidelined with a knee injury, while Garbiel Jesus has been an unused substitute in Arsenal’s last two league games and is waiting to make his first appearance of the season after nearly 11 months out with a ruptured ACL.
Having been forced out of Villa’s helter-skelter win over Brighton in the warm-up, Emi Martinez said he wouldn’t know if the Argentinian goalkeeper would be fit for today’s game “until the last minute”. Tyrone Mings remains out with a thigh injury and is not expected to be back for another four weeks, while Ross Barkley is back in the treatment room with a knee injury after a run of eight games and is not expected to be back in action until February.
Premier League: Aston Villa v Arsenal
Good day everybody, wherever you might be and here’s hoping you’ve all recovered from the surreal, stilted, extremely long, unintentionally funny and occasionally downright unpleasant experience that was last night’s World Cup draw. Having been tasked with liveblogging that particular fever dream, it’s nice for me to be back in action doing something a little more straightforward and less weird – an actual football match between the top two teams in the Premier League form table: Aston Villa and Arsenal.
The top team in the actual Premier League table, Arsenal can increase the gap to their nearest rivals to eight points with a win in today’s early kick-off but will have to beat an Aston Villa side who have won eight of their last nine top flight matches to do so. Mikel Arteta’s side chalked up a fairly routine 2-0 win against Brentford last time out.
Under Unai Emery, who endured an unproductive 18-month spell in charge of Arsenal before being replaced by Arteta in 2019, Villa’s recovery from a surprisingly sluggish start to the season has been little short of remarkable and a win today would see them leapfrog Manchester City to go second in the table and – whisper it – possibly start getting mentioned in passing as potential title contenders. They come into today’s match still high on the hog after a thrilling 4-3 win against Brighton on Wednesday night in which Ollie Watkins ended his long barren spell with two goals. Kick-off at Villa Park is at 12.30pm (GMT) but we’ll have team news and build-up in the meantime.
