Arsenal vs Aston Villa Match Preview

After back to back home defeats against Blackburn and Bayern, Arsenal are back again at the Emirates this time taking on relegation threatened Aston Villa in the premiership. A week ago this game looked to be a comfortable home fixture for the Gunners but once again it’s been proved that a week is a long time in football. Last friday Arsenal fans were pretty happy going into the Blackburn game. We won a very difficult game at Sunderland, playing with 10 men for quite some time yet managing to hold on for the 1-0 win. It really seemed like a turning point but as has been proved now that it was just a false dawn.

Aston Villa are struggling quite badly this season. They have been in the relegation dog fight for most of this season and at the moment find themselves in 17th place, just a point ahead of Reading. They are fighting for their premiership status and recently have shown plenty of fighting spirit. They went to Everton a couple of weeks ago and went 3-1 up but in the end Everton got a draw thanks to a late late Fellaini equalizer. So it’s not gonna be an easy game at all for Arsenal especially at the current troubled state of our own team after back to back home defeats. Benteke, N’Zogbia and Weimann are the biggest threats from Villa. Benteke in particular worries me. In some games he has looked quite unplayable and has tremendous strength and power which could really trouble our defence.

Wenger is likely to bring Giroud back into the starting lineup. Sagna has been ruled out so Jenkinson should start at RB. Nacho will start at LB. It’s likely to be Vermaelen and Mertersacker as the CB pairing.

In midfield I personally would like to see Rosicky start. Wenger might not do that but I think we could do with his energetic performances. The kind of performances that really helped us last season. Unfortunately I see Wenger continuing with Arteta, Wilshere and Cazorla.

Upfront it should be Theo on the right, Podolski on the left and Giroud playing in the CF role.

YFF Player Picks

There are a lot of potential great picks this week from the Arsenal side. Theo could go big in this game but I think Giroud is the best bet as he can take advantage of the shaky Villa backline. Jenkinson is a great filler and could get some nice points from SC and CW. Cazorla is there in most teams already as well. Nacho is also quite a decent bet preupdate.

Score Prediction

Arsenal 2 Aston Villa 1

Giroud, Walcott, Benteke

I hope the players will bring their A game tomorrow as we really need a good performance and the 3 points to lift the spirit at the club. We still have to fight for finishing in the top 4 and we are 4 points off that target at this stage. Tottenham will have a tough game this week at West Ham and Chelsea are at Man City so this is a golden opportunity to reduce the gap. Fingers crossed we will take it.

COYG!