Arsenal welcome Aston Villa to the Emirates this evening, knowing that they simply cannot drop points in their bid to stay in the title race. This is the team that Mikel Arteta has gone with.
We all know that Arsenal won the reverse fixture earlier in the season, but we also remember what Villa did to us last season and what it cost us. This is a huge game by any metric for both sides.
Villa will be desperate to get something from their visit to North London to maintain their push for a Champions League spot, while Arsenal know full well that they must pick up maximum points if they are to stay in the title race. A defeat is unthinkable.
Arsenal are the favourites, of course; they are the better team and have home advantage. But that was also the case last season at the Emirates, and the Villans managed to take all three points then. They will no doubt feel confident they can do the same again today.
Arsenal are fresh off a satisfying North London derby win over Tottenham, so no one can say they don’t have some momentum. However, losses to Newcastle United and Manchester United (on penalties) do show that Arsenal are not unbeatable at home.
That said, I am personally confident that we will beat Villa, as long as we put our chances away, and that is where this game may be won or lost.
Let us know in the comments below what you think about the team that Arteta has put out and what your predicted scoreline is.
Saliba injury confirmed….
Big news is no saliba – the knock on effect of moving partey to RB could be telling, unfortunately
I still think Partey should be included in the starting line up.He has played well. Marino is slow and does not gel.
Why not play Kiwior at centre back and leave Partey at 6.
I’d prefer that – I guess the reason is kiwior is less comfortable at right CB than timber? Still think it would be better for the team with partey in midfield and timber at RB
Exactly
Liverpool just scored 2, this is a must win game for Ars. Kiwior would cost Ars if he start and Tierney won’t be comfortable either. Not going to fault on this one.
Come on you gunners ❤️❤️❤️❤️
Partey at RB…. why do we do this!!
Partey at Right Back, not again?! Why is Kiwior not considered as capable for covering Saliba? Kiwior cost £20M now he is not good enough even for cover? Why not try even Tierney? Argh. This coach I’m so tired.
What a time for Saliba to have a tight hamstring.With White and Tomi still unfit, Arteta had little option other than to play Timber at RCB where he has played for Ajax and Holland, but with Partey at RB, Merino needs to perform today.
@Grandad Merino is actually my worry in this game. Let’s hope he steps up today. I also think Kiwior should be given some minutes second half at left full back we need his height in the box to defend conners or aerial ball.
Darn. Liverpool scored in the 90th minute
Liverpool won the game on the strength of their bench. Arsenal have very thin bench at the moment and that’s my worry in our today and up coming matches
But this is the biggest difference between Liverpool and Arsenal
Liverpool has been very lucky in terms of injuries
They have had whole squad available for entire year
I still believe if they Miss Salah, VVD and TAA for 1 month then they won’t be on top of the table
Partey RB. Very unimaginative, our points tally with Partey RB and not midfield is poor. We score more points with Partey midfield. Bad move?
Yet again, instead of solving one problem he creates two.
Was always going to be a tricky game, but even more so now. Let’s hope the boys are up with the same intensity as they were against spurs. COYG.
Party at right back….self harm. WTF!
Defensively we are doing very okay but offensively we need to create chances
Timber looks great at CB tbh. Didn’t expect him to be quite so good. I guess his biggest potential weakness is in the air
Just don’t concede now!!!
Skelly has crazy maturity in his game for a kid. Plays like he has 10 years exp.
Can we convert him as RWF like we did with Saka
Saka also started his career as LB under Unai Emery…
Kedar, Saka played on the left wing under Emery. The only time he played at left back was due to injuries to Tierney and Kolasinac.
Emery made a wrong decision by not pressing Arsenal and not exploiting Timber’s aerial weakness, but he might change it in the second half
We scored a good goal, but we need the second one ASAP
@Gai, I really wish we are clinical and take our chances we should have been two up by now, if Trossard & Merino had been precised.
I think at some point in second half Kiwior should be given some minutes at left back because he can support defensive in aerial balls compared to MLS. Arsenal need to careful of counter attacks Emery is very tactful, Saliba is the only quick CB we have and his not in this game .
Good luck to the Boys in second half.
I hope Kiwior will play in the second half, but maybe Arsenal are looking to sell him out
What are we doing
Villa is back in the game
I will blame Martinelli for Villa’s first goal, because h held the when he could have squared it to Trossard. If Trossard was so selfish Arsenal would not have scored. Sell this Selfish guy
😂are you serious😂
We do need some new signings. We are creatively inept except for Odeggard and Saka.
Pathetic
Who is Partey marking?
But that’s how CF finishes of
Unbelievable- what the hell are we doing?
Drawing and giving tittle to Liverpool
It’s a shame our desired result, turned on its tail😥… Why the 🍴is sterling our payroll?
Sorry to say but merino is rubbish
We’ve allowed Villa to get back into this game. No pressing or closing down on their crosses is criminal. Partey is just too slow in thought and in physicality.
Early injury to Odegaard
Injury to White
Injury to Saka
Absence of proper CF
And inability to bring CF on Jan window has cost Arsenal the whole season
Same ol same ol
Why can’t Havertz dribble at all?
Havertz touch is unbelievable in a bad way
Imagine being paid yearly salaries in a week but you can’t dribble a football…
Early injury to Odegaard
Injury to White
Injury to Saka
Absence of proper CF
And inability to bring CF on Jan window has cost Arsenal the whole season
Arsenal actually have no impact subs bad from the board Sterling my lord odeagard wouldn’t hit a barn door
Panic over… Sterling is here!
Some very tired legs out there extremely dangerous vs a rapid villa team. If we win it will be with our guts.
I fear Villa will score in injury time and won this one
Havertz hand ball usless
Imagine going to the bench and the best u can put in is sterling. We should have kept some of the players we loaned out like viera and Nelson.
Was it he’s hand
I don’t think so
Not sure
Once again, what is the point of Sterling?
Makes it 11v11 on paper
Trossard how can u not hit the target
He would have been offside anyway
Unbelievable. What a miss by Trossard. Wow.
He was offside anyway.
Sign a striker stan ffs
Season over for the league but just not alot of quality by us. It’s now getting embarrassing by Arteta to play players out of position but I’m sure there will be some sort of idiots supporting Arteta and if you can support him please don’t post on here as you will look like a complete dick
The gang that couldn’t shoot straight 😕
Offside mate.
That performance doesn’t just prove we need a decent striker. We need better quality in depth. If Saliba played today I don’t think Villa score.
Our home record is taking a battering recently. We’re just so wasteful in front of goal. This season looks doomed because we’re obviously not good enough in squad depth.
What an absolute joke, cannot believe it. Liverpool had all the luck, we had none at all.
Nothing to do with luck. Have to do better imo.
Should’ve won that no doubt about it, if Saliba had been on, I doubt if he’d let Tielmans and Watkins free to take shots like that.
Completely agree, Gmv8!
We were really good until we went 2 up, I was impressed – we kept up the intensity we showed against spurs and controlled the game without two of our very best players. What happened? Did we start to sit back? Did we run out of gas? Was it just poor defending in moments? Did villa step it up?
We were complacent at that moment when Villa nabbed the ball near their box and did what we can’t do which is go FORWARD QUICKLY and accurately
Up until then we were in the driving seat
Another year another trophyless season with a team hanging on by the bare bones everywhere around the pitch.
Top4 is best we can achieve this season.
6 points behind and they have a game in hand.
2-0 down in 1st leg of carboa cup, out of FA Cup and this team isn’t getting by the last 16 if we’re lucky with a kind draw in the UCL.
Being realistic were in bad shape with alot of these players nowhere near the level their salaries pay them. Trying to move most on will be difficult also and trying to convince a top player to come here is going to be hard also considering what is here now
Season over bin dippers win the league the fact the manager has not addressed the need for a striker for years has cost us again he now needs to go Arteta out!
We hoped for the best …… we keep hoping against these odds still.
And there’s no point in talking of us chasing Liverpool at all. We are experts in fighting for top 4 and we are doing extremely well at it.
Every single stat in the game we do better by 💯 apart from goals. If that doesn’t say we need a clinical striker, nothing will.
To remind you of how a winning team have to react: Brendan Rogers created a very good Liverpool team and they were just a match short of winning the PL, after loosing to Chalsea with unluck slip of Steven Gerald, liverpool sucked Brendan and Brought in the Winning Manager Juggen Clop, and you all know what happens after that….
The subject here is, don’t hesitate to make change for improvement
I don’t know why Martinelli and Trossard are the usual scapegoats for a poor Arsenal result. We have a centre forward who rarely makes an impact, a midfield general in Odegaard who can’t shoot and looked tired and jaded, an average body in Merino and a fu back who can’t defend. Our disappointment is the result of a poor transfer window where the two guys responsible got their priorities wrong and stuffed up badly.
Arteta once again has done this to himself by playing PArtey at the right back when 4 defenders were on the bench. What does Merino really do? Havertz was signed to replace Xhaka, and he couldn’t do that; he was tried upfront as he was better than a depleted Jesus; he is the number 3 striker at his best. I was shocked to see Malen, a player who can start for Arsenal, be the 3rd striker to an Aston Villa side
Odeegard has been very poor without Saka.
We lack dimension, and Arteta intelligence is becoming self-harming. Play the best players in their positions. A specialist is always better than a swizz army knife.
Arteta seems like a man who likes control and finds it hard to control personalities. Sadly, most top players have this.
We need at least nine signings in this team when Jorginho and Partey leave. WE have no striker, no backup for Saliba, no LB, no midfielders aside from Rice, and hopefully Zubimendi and Odeegard have no backup. Saka has no backup; we have no Striker. We have only one goalkeeper.
I know we’ve got some injury’s, but if you look at todays side the only two players missing who are considered first choice starters are Saliba and Saka.
What these injury’s to our other player’s highlights to me is just how lame we look from the bench. I believed even before we had these injury’s that our squad wasn’t good enough anyway.
Over the five seasons under Arteta, I’ve read on here how we’ve had good Transfer windows, something I’ve not bought into to be honest.
For me only the signings of White, Odegaard to a point, Jesus in his first season, same with Zinchenko, Trossard, Rice, Timber.
And then you come to the underwhelming signings, Havertz, Merino, Calafiori, Sterling on loan, Kiwior, Jorginho, I may have missed a couple.
Really my point is that our transfer windows haven’t been what they need to be if we really want to sustain a title challenge.🙄👍🤷♂️