Game Week 9 Predictions: Villa to heap more misery on Arsenal?

 

Aston Villa will visit Arsenal on Friday with the hopes of heaping more misery on Mikel Arteta's side, will Arsenal let them?

Arsenal vs Aston Villa

Emirates Stadium

8:00pm

The Arsenal that turned up after scoring against Crystal Palace right till the final ten minutes will not beat any team no matter how poor the opposition is on the day, but the Arsenal that played prior to Pierre Emerick Aubameyang’s goal and ten minutes before Alexander Lacazette’s leveler will stand toe to toe with any team in the world, now which of these two will show up against Aston Villa?

Hopes were high when The Gunners took on the Eagles at the Emirates on Monday night football to round off game week eight, and as always Arsenal started brightly and got a goal to show for it but they went to sleep, conceded possession and eventually fell behind before rescuing a point at the death.

Aston Villa were beaten at home last weekend, bizarre to say the least because they were two goals up against Wolves, and right at the death they conceded from a sensational set piece by Ruben Neves, coming into this game on the back of that gives an idea of what to expect.

Football has beautiful ways of confounding the strongest of punters and we love to see it but line ups can be great pointers to where games would swing and apart from Granit Xhaka who is sidelined till the end of the year, Arsenal can call on everyone else and sake for Leon Bailley, Villa has everyone fit.

Aston Villa have won the last three between these two including a rare double last season, Dean Smith is building something major at Villa Park, they lost Jack Grealish to Manchester City and they have reinforced adequately, they should be just fine.

A good section of Arsenal fans still wonder if Mikel Arteta is the right man to lead the team forward, you can’t blame them, the inconsistency in patterns and style won’t let you jump on the manager’s back, how much of time does Arteta need to show what he’s got?

How will they line up? You only have to watch Arsenal once to know how to beat them, Aston Villa will seek to tame the Gunners by nullifying Bukayo Saka and Martin Odegaard, Arsenal rarely create anything outside these two.

For Arsenal, the single pivot of Thomas Partey failed woefully against Palace, Arteta will be tempted to start an extra midfielder, the defensive shape is sorted but they can easily be exposed if Partey is overwhelmed just as he was against Patrick Vieira’s side.

Verdict: Both teams to score, over 7.5 corners and both sides to be booked at least twice each