Official Arsenal team to face Aston Villa – just two changes and Ryan starts

Both Arsenal and Villa suffered defeats midweek, however, that is where the similarity ends because Dean Smith’s side deserved to lose to an in-form West Ham, whereas Arsenal was very unfortunate to be on the end of a 2-1 defeat away to Wolves.
The first half display by Arsenal against Wolves was probably the best first half they have had all season and a repeat of that today should be enough to see off Villa, however, they have to take their chances today, they cannot afford to be so wasteful against Premier League teams.

To a large extent, the team is picking itself these days because of the good form they are in but of course, there are forced changes today with David Luiz and Bernd Leno absent through suspension due to the red cards they picked up midweek.

This is the team that Mikel Arteta has gone with, let us know in the comments below what you think and whether you would have done anything differently.

Tags arsenal team news Aston Villa v Arsenal

241 Comments

  1. This a hard loss to take… all hard work undone in 2 games. Average team with an average manager & owner!

    1. Average team that comfortably did a double amover us, conceding 4goals while Martinez holds it clean. I’m gutted.

  2. Loss down to Arteta. Poor management. You’ve got to wonder if they even spend time practicing trying to score goals.

  3. If we can’t qualify for Europe next season, no good player will want to come to Arsenal. Aston Villa is currently more attractive than Arsenal as a football brand.

      1. Absolutely shocking! It’s unacceptable.. just strolling round the pitch. Wasted first half, then decide to play with about 10 minutes left!!
        All our eggs are definitely in the Europa League basket now…god help us!!

        1. Hate to think where we’ll end up. How the hell can West Ham go there and batter them and we can’t even score once!!!

    1. Hmmm. I am tired honestly. I just sont know what the issue is with this team. Something is definitely wrong

  4. You know that Japanese saying?
    It roughly translates to “we’re a million years from where we’re supposed to be”.
    Now for Willock masterclass against Southampton & rest of the season, forcing us to sell him to Newcastle where he’ll be the one who haunts us.
    It’s so predictable.
    Our training ground is full of spikes, no wonder nobody who wants to win comes here. They CANNOT play at their best or they’ll get permacrocked!

  5. Except xhaka or saka no there player in the starting 11 showed any urgency to score goal.Wtf is willian doing in this club.

  6. Bellerin don’t have strength to play football at the end of the season he will be given new contract, pepe is nothing about money well wasted… xhaka can’t play can’t play one touch pass.Arenal is deteriorating every day.what a sham.

          1. Xhaka is a footballing dinasour … small brain big body … no team in top 10 would pick him up … until we move on from his kind of lateral cautious boring football we will remain stuck as a mid table team … holding was more forward thinking in this game for god sake … xhaka bellerin Luiz willian Pepe laca aube all for the chop … we are not going to finish anywhere near top 6 … so it’s a whole reset needed next season or we will just be in the rinse repeat cycle indefinitely

      1. U must be demented by saying xhaka was our best player today.maybe u were watching back of the t.v

    1. Pepe played well today. I’m still trying to understand why we bought Willian. He needs to do more than he is currently doing. He needs to be more mobile and should be scoring goals. And for Aubameyang, he is becoming a passenger in the team. This is really frustrating

  7. i changed the channel when i saw willian come on instead of Martinelli come on guys Mikel Artetal is simply just not good enough

    1. Absolutely..we want urgency and arteta puts on willian..
      Definitely showing a personal bias that’s not benefiting the club..

  8. Arteta must be blamed for today’s defeat.The Formation he changed after Partey’s substitution our player looked confused playing in this formation.

  9. What is xhaka work In this arsenal team? Only side ways pass to the left and right.if arsenal had any form of ambition in them xhaka shouldn’t be in this team.nicholas pepe i reserve my comment.abumeyang the less said the better.david luiz should be retired.bellerin from years to years he still haven’t developed himself to be a worldclass RB. To wrap it all up Mikel Arteta is not for arsenal,arsenal is not Mikel arteta

  10. I don’t see much in Odergaard. Looks capable but not one to turn a game. One of those solid but unspectacular Scandinavian types. Arsenal are not in a good place,are they? Is it the coaching staff? So many impotent, deadwood performances. William, Pepe, Laca, Auba,ESR even Saka all so easy to defend against. Always in the wrong place, making the wrong decisions. Won’t even mention the fullbacks. You guys in the UK are lucky. You have the rest of the afternoon to brood, go for a run or drown your sorrows. It’s 2.00am here in Sydney,how am I going to get to sleep? Should know better at my age.

  11. For over 90mins we couldn’t score. How many games will it take Arteta to realise Willian is a mistake? Why not Martineli instead of Auba and Willian? There’s absolutely no reason for Willian to come in ahead of Martineli and Ceballos today. Don’t Arteta know goals can also be scored from outside 18 yard? Has Xhaka forgotten he has a rocket of a shot in him?
    Holding needs some time on the bench, he getting too relaxed now. Yes Cedric made a mistake but the goal was Holding’s fault. Why is he always scared of getting close to fast attackers?
    The gamble Arteta took on the FA Cup game against Southampton will hunt him as the season draws to an end.

  12. Admin my comment is a realitycheck.stop hindering it from been visible.we all need to face reality at some point in life

  13. Auba should remain on the bench looked horrible , Cedric the worst player of this match .Willian has to be sharing his wages with Arteta and Edu . I dont know what has happened to Partey as this is not the player i followed from Athletico Madrid .At this pace i would advice we try integrating Lopez as our LB since we didnt sign one as a cover for Tierney .
    Xhaka has improved and as i said in my last Post we need to clear out our strikers and get someone who is well rounded . Examples of such are
    Ollie Watkins ,Halland, Calvert LEwin,Harry Kane ,PAtson Daka , Dembele,Ivan Toney . Still cant understand why a striker cant head the ball .We should also begin to think to a RB like Max Aarons .I also believe Martinez was the better keeper but that ship has sailed

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