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Aston Villa host Arsenal at Villa Park in a blockbuster Premier League title race showdown.
Victory will put Villa up to second if Liverpool lose elsewhere, whilst Arsenal will stay top with a win.
Team News
Aston Villa have no fresh injury concerns after they beat Manchester City in midweek.
Tyrone Mings (knee), Bertrand Traore (muscle) and Emiliano Buendia (ACL) remain ruled out.
Arsenal have no fresh injury concerns to report following their dramatic away win at Luton.
Takehiro Tomiyasu (calf), Jurrien Timbers, Emile Smith Rowe (both knee), Fabio Vieira (groin) and Thomas Partey (muscle) remain absent.
When is Kick-Off?
Aston Villa host Arsenal at Villa Park in a 5:30pm GMT kick-off on Saturday 9 December, live on Sky Sports in the UK.
Stat Attack
- Aston Villa have won three of their last seven meetings against Arsenal (W3, L4).
- Arsenal have won five of their last seven league trips to Villa (W5, L2).
- Arsenal’s Gabriel Martinelli scored in both appearances against Villa last season (W2).
- Three of Douglas Luiz’s five league goals for Villa this season have been scored from the penalty spot.
- Bukayo Saka has converted 13 of his 28 shots for Arsenal onto target in the Premier League this season.
Prediction
Having absolutely dominated Man City in midweek with clinical end product and unbelievable confidence, Villa certainly won’t fear Arsenal if they play like that once more but their defence will need to be wary of the Gunners’ goal threats across the entire pitch.
Arsenal though were defensively poor at Luton with some pieces of awful marking coupled with blunders from David Raya, so a huge improvement will be needed here but their attacking intensity and quality saw them through underlining how dangerous they’re now on the attack.
A goalless draw therefore feels extremely unlikely and if both teams play like they did in midweek but with better defending from Arsenal, I wouldn’t be surprised if this ends in a draw otherwise a home win will put Villa right up there for the title scrap.
Prediction: Aston Villa 1-1 Arsenal
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