Aston Villa and Arsenal will both be hoping to return to winning ways at Villa Park on Saturday following midweek defeats for both sides in the Premier League.
Tenth-place Arsenal are now just one point behind ninth-place Aston Villa, although Villa do have two games in hand over the Gunners.
Allez Nico! 👏Plenty for us to continue building upon 🏗𝗨𝗽 𝗻𝗲𝘅𝘁: #AVLARS pic.twitter.com/hbAP617iuG— Arsenal (@Arsenal) February 3, 2021
Allez Nico! 👏Plenty for us to continue building upon 🏗𝗨𝗽 𝗻𝗲𝘅𝘁: #AVLARS pic.twitter.com/hbAP617iuG
Villa made an outstanding start to the season, losing just four of their opening 15 games, as well as picking up eight wins.
However, Dean Smith’s side seem to have lost their way a bit in recent weeks, suffering four defeats in their previous seven league outings.
Since the turn of the year, losses to Man Utd, Man City, Burnley and West Ham have seen Villa slip out of European contention, at least for now.
Aston Villa dominated possession against the Hammers on Wednesday, yet Emi Martinez faced 20 shots (ten on target).
Ollie Watkins scored Villa’s only goal of the game on 81 minutes last time out, but West Ham claimed a comfortable 3-1 victory in the end.
After stringing together a seven-game unbeaten streak in the Premier League across December and January, Arsenal suffered their first defeat since before Christmas on Tuesday.
The Gunners appeared to be in total control against Wolves, seemingly heading into half-time with a 1-0 advantage.
However, David Luiz conceded a penalty and was subsequently sent off just before the break, with Wolves equalizing on the stroke of half-time.
Wolves took the lead early in the second half, before Bernd Leno was shown a red card for a senseless handball late on. Arsenal eventually lost 2-1.
There is no denying that Arsenal have improved dramatically lately, but they were nowhere near good enough in their previous match.
Head-to-head: Aston Villa claimed an easy 3-0 win over Arsenal at the Emirates earlier in the campaign, with Ollie Watkins bagging a brace.
Villa have no secured two straight wins against the Gunners, although they suffered seven straight defeats in this fixture prior to that.
Team news: Kortney Hause and Wesley are both currently sidelined for Aston Villa, although Smith has no fresh injury concerns ahead of Saturday’s match.
Arsenal will be without suspended duo David Luiz and Bernd Leno this weekend, meaning Mat Ryan could make his debut between the sticks for the Gunners.
This is destined to be a tight battle between two relatively evenly-matched teams, although Arsenal are expected edge Villa.
Forebet predicts that both teams will score at least once goal, with Arsenal likely to outscore Aston Villa.