Arsenal return to Premier League action on Monday night when they travel to Villa Park to face Aston Villa, with Mikel Arteta’s side looking to maintain their perfect start to the new campaign.
The Gunners have had an unusual 10-day break since their last game, but plenty has happened during that time, including significant transfer activity involving both clubs.
Perhaps the most intriguing move of all ahead of Monday’s meeting is Ezri Konsa swapping Villa Park for Arsenal, meaning the defender could make his Gunners debut against the club he has just left.
Arsenal aiming to maintain their winning start
Arsenal head to the Midlands having started the season positively, while Aston Villa will be desperate to respond after suffering a heavy defeat in their Premier League opener.
Unai Emery’s side lost 4-0 away to Brighton, with all four goals arriving before half-time.
That came after Villa lost to Paris Saint-Germain in the UEFA Super Cup and followed a summer of considerable change at Villa Park.
Emery guided Villa to an excellent campaign last season, finishing fourth in the Premier League and winning the Europa League with a 3-0 victory over Freiburg in the final.
However, many of the players responsible for that success have subsequently departed.
Morgan Rogers moved to Chelsea, Youri Tielemans joined Manchester United and Lucas Digne left for Paris Saint-Germain. Konsa is now an Arsenal player, while Ollie Watkins and Emiliano Martinez have also moved on.
Only five of the players who started Villa’s Europa League final remain at the club.
A very different Aston Villa awaits Arsenal
Villa have naturally attempted to rebuild following those departures.
Joao Gomes and Johann Manzambi were brought in, while goalkeeper Zion Suzuki, Matteo Ruggeri and Leon Goretzka are among the other new arrivals.
Aaron Wan-Bissaka has joined on loan from West Ham, while Alejandro Garnacho and Nicolas Jackson have also arrived on loan.
The scale of the changes means Arsenal could face a Villa side very different from the one they encountered last season.
Despite their difficult start, Arteta certainly isn’t underestimating Emery or the challenge awaiting his team at Villa Park.
The Arsenal boss described his fellow Spaniard as one of the Premier League’s most experienced and successful managers and praised Villa for what they achieved last season.
Emery, meanwhile, has called on the Villa Park crowd to get behind his team as they attempt to respond to their opening-day defeat.
Arsenal could target Villa’s problems against the press
One particularly interesting area on Monday could be how Villa attempt to play through Arsenal’s pressure.
According to the tactical analysis in Arsenal’s official match preview, Villa struggled significantly against Brighton’s press on the opening weekend.
They conceded a league-high 19 high turnovers while attempting to play out from defence, particularly when possession was moved into central midfield.
That could encourage Arsenal to press aggressively at Villa Park.
Arteta’s side enjoyed success with that approach during their 4-1 home victory over Villa last season, particularly during the second half.
There is an obvious risk attached to committing players forward to press, but Villa have lost some of the attacking weapons who previously made them particularly dangerous on the counter-attack.
Arsenal’s left side could be important again
Another potential route for the Gunners could be switching possession quickly towards the left.
Christos Tzolis and Riccardo Calafiori combined effectively against Coventry, with Calafiori’s movement inside helping Arsenal create overloads around the opposition right-back.
Villa conceded from a similar situation in their opening league fixture, so it could be an area Arteta’s side look to exploit again.
At the other end, John McGinn remains a player Arsenal will need to watch closely.
The Villa captain often operates from a narrow position on the right and can find dangerous pockets of space. He has also either scored or assisted in each of his last six appearances at Villa Park in all competitions.
Villa Park has not always been kind to Arsenal
Despite Arsenal entering the game in better form, recent history suggests Villa Park shouldn’t be taken lightly.
Aston Villa have won four of their seven home Premier League meetings with Arsenal since returning to the top flight in 2019.
Villa have also won their last three Premier League home matches against the reigning champions.
There are, however, some encouraging statistics for the Gunners.
Arsenal have won seven of their last 10 Premier League evening kick-offs against Villa, including the last three, and have won their opening away fixture in each of the previous four league campaigns without conceding.
Victory on Monday would therefore see Arsenal win their first away league game in five consecutive seasons for the first time.
Kai Havertz also heads into the fixture with an impressive away record, having contributed five goals and two assists across his last nine Arsenal appearances away from the Emirates.
Villa Park should provide Arteta’s men with a much sterner examination than they faced in their opening fixture, and Emery will be determined to produce a reaction in front of his own supporters.
For Arsenal, though, it represents the first opportunity of the season to demonstrate their credentials away from home and maintain their 100 per cent Premier League start.
Can Arsenal make it two Premier League wins from two at Villa Park, Gooners? Where do you think Monday night’s game will be won or lost? Let us know in the comments.
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We have agreed to sell Jesus to Barcelona for 9 million. Vieira to Hamburg for 8 milliln.
I hope there are hefty add-ons and sell on clauses because those are laughable fees. Well at least we dont lose them for free like Auba, Özil, Laca etc. so I guess thats improvement lol
Getting Jesus’ 250k weekly wages off is surely a relief for Berta
I think £9 million is reasonable.
His market value is about £15 million
But His contract ends in about 10 months time, when he could have left for free
But like you said he earns £265,000 per week for us, so that helps even more than the selling on fee.
Viera’s contract ends in June also
That’s why we sell him for less than his market value
Can we then in future sign players on reasonable transfer fees and salaries? Did we need to put Jesus on £250k a week when he was being kicked out of City? Did we need to spend €40M on an unproven Viera? As soon as we saw him we all knew he was too light weight for the Premier League. Lastly, can we get whoever it is that does business for Chelsea? Coz I swear Chelsea would have made £40M for Jesus and probably €50M for Viera.
@QD,
I think when we signed Jesus and Zinchenko, we had to lure them in with higher wages. Comparing Zinchenko’s 150k a week to ie. Hincapies current 90k, I think our club has better ‘pull’ nowadays than it had 4 years ago. When you finish 8th twice in a row, its harder to get top players if you don’t show them the money.
Vieira was a weird signing. I remember when we got him, we didn’t need CM/CAM and still got him out of nowhere.
@Quantic Dream
Better yet. Let’s get the scouts and analysts from Brighton, who buy find and buy players for like $750k and then sell them for £100 mil. Now that’s good business acumen. 😁
This game will be a tricky one, but the Villans are looking to bounce back from a tough start, Arsenal will turn up at Villa Park with tails high in their back after opening our campaign with a convincing win over Coventry.
The Villa boys just like the Spurs boys have not gotten their act together after what seems line a very busy summer for them.
It will take couple of games to find their footings.
Tomorrow they will be blown away.
An important game for both teams. We Arsenal fans would like to see our team build it’s momentum and continue with the flowing football, while Villa needs to demonstrate that they have what it takes to stop the slide and there is something to build on this season. I hope Arsenal go in with a positive mentality but have some doubts especially with the overemphasise on signing defenders and seeing the likes of Harvetz and Goykers still around. Would love to be seriously wrong.
Aston Villa has been raided for everyone worth anything. How do you lose Rodgers, Watkins, Tielemans, Digne, Konsa, Martinez, D.Luiz all in one window? Not to mention Onana is out on a longterm injury. I expect us to collect the full 3 points. Anything less than a win is disaster in my books.
‘anything less than a win is a disaster’. I agree QD
Can’t wait to see how Magalhaes and Konsa partner to contain the teen rising star attacker. What a start and a testimonial it would be if Konsa scores at Villa Park. Interesting to see speedsters Cash v Tzolis. On paper it’s hightime to face Villa as their squad had depleted.
Ref Gillette is known for allowing a physical tackling game which suits Villa more.
After winning and topping the table is important psychologically for next week’s Chelsea tie.
This game is more tricky than some people think. Yes Aston Villa have lost a lot of players in the summer.
But anyone who watched Villa versus PSG recently would have seen even without the players they lost in the summer they still created loads of chances against PSG. And it took an extra time winner to beat them.
And did anyone else note the 17 year old striker for Villa. He’s 17 and built like a bulldozer, if he plays tonight I pity the defender who is responsible for keeping him quite.
I hope we win, but even with Villa’s troublesome summer we will have to be bang on it.
DEREK ,
Can you dare to predict this single game and learn in the meantime the mental twists and turns of the predictions game players?
I think PSG fielded a second string team v Villa due to WC absentees.
Amba,
With the players that Villa were without evened it up I would say. It worked both ways don’t forget.
As for me predicting, not for me I’m afraid. I like to wait and see, I leave the prediction games to the likes of you’re goodself and the other poster’s on here. 👍
DEREK,
PSG got back those players; Villa sent them for good. You’re correct absences even themselves up
Every football fan has predictions of some sort at heart. The difference is writing them down and making them known by others.
Can Dan produce the ‘as it stands table’ for the predictions game as i feel table toppers may have lost their positions?
Amba,
You say that every fan has predictions at heart, not me my friend. I truly just wait and see.
Football is to unpredictable as far as I’m concerned, so I just don’t get involved regards predicting.