At A Glance
Aston Villa resume Premier League matters on Sunday as they travel to north London to face Arsenal at Emirates Stadium.
The Villans head into the encounter on the back of a 2-1 victory over LOSC Lille in the first leg of their UEFA Europa Conference League quarter-final on Thursday, with Ollie Watkins and John McGinn on target.
Unai Emery's side played out a 3-3 draw with Brentford last weekend and have suffered just one defeat in their last six matches in all competitions.
Arsenal also go into the clash on the back of midweek European action, drawing 2-2 against Bayern Munich in the first leg of their Champions League last-eight tie.
The in-form Gunners are involved in a three-way tussle for the Premier League title and have sustained just one defeat in their previous 14 in all competitions.
Mikel Arteta's side have lost just once in the league at home this season, coming against West Ham United in December, and have dropped a total of seven points.
Standout Stats
Arsenal have won five of their last six Premier League home games against Aston Villa. The exception in that run was a 3-0 defeat in November 2020.
The Villans won December's reverse fixture 1-0 courtesy of a goal by John McGinn.
Arsenal have won 10 of their last 11 Premier League games, scoring at least twice in each victory. The Gunners have conceded just four goals across these 11 games, though three of those have been at the Emirates Stadium.
Villa are looking to complete their third Premier League double over Arsenal, having done so in 1992-93 and 2020-21.
Arsenal have taken 31 points out of a possible 33 in their 11 league games in 2024, only dropping points in a 0-0 draw at Manchester City on 31 March.
Aston Villa have equalled their total number of Premier League victories last season and are one short of their final points total in 2022-23.
The Londoners have kept 14 Premier League clean sheets this season, at least five more than any other club (prior to the latest round of fixtures). They have not kept more in a single campaign since recording 18 in 2015-16.
Villa are unbeaten in their last nine league away games against London sides (W6, D3), having lost eight of their previous nine before this. It is Villa's longest run without defeat in the capital in their league history.
Bukayo Saka has been involved in 11 goals in his last 11 Premier League appearances, scoring nine and assisting two. One more goal would see him become the first English player to score 15 in a league campaign for Arsenal since Ian Wright netted 23 in 1996-97.
The Villans were beaten 4-1 in their last Premier League away game at Manchester City but haven't lost back-to-back fixtures on the road since May 2023.
Leandro Trossard has eight league goals this season, his joint most in a single campaign. Four of these have been as a substitute, with only Olivier Giroud ever netting more from the bench for Arsenal in a season (the Frenchman netted six such goals in 2016-17).
Ollie Watkins has 18 Premier League goals this season, one short of matching the club record set by Christian Benteke in 2012-13.
The Last Meeting
Aston Villa beat Arsenal to set a new club record of 15 consecutive home league wins at a raucous Villa Park in December.
John McGinn netted the only goal of the game after seven minutes, smashing home in front of the Holte End as the hosts capitalised on a fast start.
The Gunners grew into the game and brought the best out of Emi Martínez.
An inspired display from the Argentine saw him deny Bukayo Saka, Martin Ødegaard and Gabriel Jesus among others to keep his fourth clean sheet in the top flight this term, with Kai Havertz seeing a late goal ruled out for a handball in the build-up.
Team News
Douglas Luiz serves the first of a two-match ban, while Matty Cash and Clement Lenglet are in contention to return to the squad.
Emi Buendia, Tyrone Mings, Boubacar Kamara and Jacob Ramsey remain sidelined.
Meanwhile Arsenal will only be without Jurrien Timber.
The Boss
“We played at home here at Villa Park in December (compared to) the match we are going to play on Sunday. Something similar because there’s a lot of players again playing, fighting in those teams. But different because we’re playing at the Emirates, we’re playing as well in a different context, now they are fighting for the Premier League trophy. We’re fighting behind them trying to keep our fifth position we have now and fighting with Tottenham. Different as well because some players, of course, being injured are not going to play on Sunday.”
Unai Emery
