At A Glance
Aston Villa roll into the Emirates Stadium on Friday night looking to shake off the disappointment of a late collapse against Wolves.
Leading 2-0 with ten minutes to play at Villa Park, the hosts found themselves on the losing side when Ruben Neves’ stoppage time free-kick deflected into the net.
The defeat was Villa’s second in as many matches after their last away match, against Tottenham in north London, ended 2-1 to the home side, leaving Dean Smith’s side 13th heading into Friday’s game.
Arsenal are just one place and one point ahead of Villa after an underwhelming start to their Premier League season.
The Gunners lost their opening three matches but have since put together a five-game unbeaten run.
Last time out, an injury time goal from Alexandre Lacazette saved Mikel Arteta’s team from defeat in a 2-2 draw against Crystal Palace on home turf.
Standout Stats
Arsenal – who faced Aston Villa in the first ever competitive game at the Emirates Stadium – have lost four of their last 10 home league games against the Villans (W6). The Gunners have only lost more league games at their new ground against Man City (5) and Chelsea (6).
Aston Villa have won their last three Premier League meetings with Arsenal, as many as they had in their previous 36 against them in the competition (W3 D9 L24). They last won four consecutive league games against the Gunners in September 1962.
Each of the last nine Premier League meetings between Arsenal and Aston Villa at the Emirates has seen at least three goals scored. The only specific fixture to see a longer such run in the competition is Manchester City at home to Newcastle – 11 times between 2007 and 2020.
Arsenal had won seven of their nine Premier League games on a Friday before the beginning of last season (D2). Since then, however, the Gunners have lost each of their last two such fixtures at home to Everton (0-1) and away to Brentford (0-2) on the opening day this season.
Of the 12 Premier League sides to have featured at least 10 times in the Premier League on a Friday, only Leicester (1/12) and Spurs (2/11) have a lower win % in such fixtures than Aston Villa (2/10), beating Spurs 4-1 in December 1997 and Everton 2-0 in August 2019.
Aston Villa have lost five of their last eight away league games (W3), as many as they had in their previous 17 on the road (W7 D5 L5). Meanwhile, the Villans have never won a Premier League away game on a Friday before (D2 L2).
Ollie Watkins scored three of Aston Villa’s four goals against Arsenal in the Premier League last season, with these goals coming from just five shots on target for the striker.
Aston Villa boss Dean Smith has won 75% of his Premier League meetings with Arsenal (3/4) – of all managers to have faced the Gunners at least four times in the competition, only Pep Guardiola has a better win rate against them (91%).
Arsenal striker Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang has scored in each of his last three Premier League games at the Emirates Stadium. In total, he’s netted 42 Premier League goals at the Emirates, with only Robin van Persie netting more at the ground in the competition (46).
In his 23-minute appearance against Crystal Palace last time out, Alexandre Lacazette had more shots on target (2) and created more chances (2) than any other Arsenal player in the match. The Frenchman is averaging a goal or assist every 46 minutes in all competitions this season (3 goals, 1 assist, 185 minutes played).
The Last Meeting
Ollie Watkins struck after just 73 seconds to score the only goal of the game when Villa and Arsenal met at Villa Park in February.
The striker’s shot deflected off of Rob Holding and beyond Mat Ryan to hand the hosts a lead they didn’t relinquish.
A staunch rearguard effort was needed to keep the Gunners at bay, with Emiliano Martinez holding firm against his old side.
Team News
Dean Smith said Leon Bailey and Bertrand Traore will be back in the matchday squad after missing time through injury, while Matty Cash has recovered from a dead leg.
Keinan Davis is also back in training and will feature for the Under-23s against Sunderland on Friday night.
Bukayo Saka was set to be assessed on Thursday after coming off injured against Crystal Palace on Monday.
Mikel Arteta's only confirmed injury absentee is Granit Xhaka.
The Boss
“People were saying they were in crisis after the first three games of the season and that was with a Covid-19 outbreak in their camp for the first game and games against the league champions and European champions. They’ve come back as we all suspected they would. They’ve drawn the last couple of games, so we can take some heart in that. We can also take some heart from what we’ve done in the last month and four or five games. They’re the ones that I have to judge us by in terms of our performances.”
Dean Smith
