Arsenal will play Aston Villa in the Premier League on Friday, October 22nd at the Emirates Stadium. Kick-off is at 8 pm UK time.
For the Gunners, this fixture will hold bad memories from last year. A Jack Grealish-inspired side tore them apart in their own stadium. The 3-0 defeat started a run that cost them dearly at the end of the campaign in their hunt for European places.
They come into the match having just played Crystal Palace on Monday, in which they were very fortunate to escape with a draw. They began brightly with an early goal from Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang but failed to capitalise, and Palace worked their way back into the match.
Their pressing caused the home side all sorts of issues. Central midfielders were robbed in possession twice, allowing the South London side to take the lead. It took substitute Alexandre Lacazette to score with virtually the last kick of the match to salvage a point.
Changes need to be made to the side. They were too passive on Monday night and only put the opposition under sustained pressure in the last five minutes. The experiment of dropping Martin Ǿdegaard deeper did not work, and he struggled to make any impact on the game.
Bukayo Saka may well not be available having suffered a bad kick in Monday’s game, so that may give Mikel Arteta the chance to give Lacazette a starting place.
Villa have their own wounds to lick.
On Saturday, they were leading the West Midlands derby at Villa Park against Wolves by two goals with ten minutes to go, and still ended up losing the game.
Prior to that, they had made an encouraging start to life without Grealish. They won against Newcastle and Everton, and achieved a first victory in 12 years against Manchester United.
There was some mitigation for what happened against Wolves. Goalkeeper Emiliano Martínez and Douglas Luiz were both thrust into action after having rushed back to Birmingham from the South American qualifiers. But they will want to get that loss out of their system as soon as possible.
Prediction
This could well be another draw. Villa have the advantage of two more days of rest going into this match, and will know that the best way to put Arsenal under pressure is to press them high up the pitch.
Mikel Arteta is once again facing question marks about his leadership after the draw with Palace, and will be keen to try and answer his critics.