Aston Villa go in search of a fourth-straight victory to begin 2025 this afternoon, with a Saturday evening trip to Emirates Stadium to take on Arsenal.
Unai Emery's side will be buoyed by a midweek Premier League victory at Everton - their third in a row in all competitions after defeating Leicester City and West Ham United.
They now head to north London looking for a second successive away win over Arsenal, having secured a memorable 2-0 triumph over Mikel Arteta's men last April on their way to securing Champions League football.
They come up against a Gunners side unbeaten in their last 11 Premier League outings, entering this clash hot on the heels of a 2-1 victory over Tottenham Hotspur in the North London Derby on Wednesday.
Arsenal currently occupy second position in the Premier League table, four points off leaders Liverpool and two clear of Nottingham Forest in third.
The Villans will be hoping to further close the gap on the top four with a victory, which would be their third in their last four meetings with Mikel Arteta's charges.
Stats
Aston Villa won 2-0 in last season's corresponding fixture and are vying to beat Arsenal in successive away league games for the first time since 1993.
Arsenal have lost five of the past 10 Premier League meetings, as many as they had in their previous 46 against Villa.
None of the last 18 Premier League encounters between these sides have been drawn.
Arsenal are unbeaten in 13 Premier League home fixtures since a 2-0 defeat by Aston Villa last April (W10, D3). Their most recent longer run without defeat at the Emirates spanned 16 games in 2018-19 under current Villa boss Unai Emery.
Aston Villa have won their first two Premier League games of a calendar year for the first time since 2009 when they triumphed in their opening three.
The Gunners are unbeaten in 44 matches in all competitions in which they've scored since a 2-1 loss against Fulham in December 2023 (W36, D8).
Emery has reached 60 wins in 113 games in charge, the quickest of any Aston Villa manager.
Arsenal have scored 26 goals from corners in the Premier League since the start of last season, the most of any team.
This season, Ollie Watkins has missed a league-high 19 of his 27 big chances – defined as a situation in which a player is expected to score.
Arsenal have had a greater expected goals total than their opponent in 26 of their 31 games in all competitions this season, including 19 of the last 20.
The Last Meeting
The last meeting between the two sides came during the second weekend of the season at Villa Park, where the Gunners ran out 2-0 winners.
After a goalless, tight first period, Mikel Arteta's side found another gear in the final 25 minutes. Leandro Trossard broke the deadlock, before Thomas Partey doubled the visitors' advantage 10 minutes later.
The defeat remains Villa's only Premier League loss on home soil to date this season, with Unai Emery's side winning six and drawing four of their 10 league outings at Villa Park since.
Team News
Donyell Malen could be involved against former side Arsenal, having signed from Borussia Dortmund on Tuesday.
Unai Emery will however remain without the services of captain John McGinn, Ross Barkley, Pau Torres and Diego Carlos through injury.
Mikel Arteta will be missing Gabriel Jesus after it was revealed the Brazilian has sustained a cruciate ligament injury.
Bukayo Saka (hamstring), Ethan Nwaneri (muscle), Ben White (knee) and Takehiro Tomiyasu (knee) are all still sidelined, with Riccardo Calafiori expected to remain out, meaning Myles Lewis-Skelly could again start in his place.
Managers' Pre-Match Thoughts
“Arsenal tomorrow will be very, very difficult. Every match we are facing is being very, very difficult – in Everton as well. We are preparing the match, we are very motivated and we’re going to try to play, improving things we did in Everton and improving things we did away in the last matches against top teams in the Premier League. Tomorrow we play one of the candidates and favourites to win the Premier League.”
Unai Emery
“We know the difficulty of the team that they are, that’s why they’re performing so well. They have an excellent coach, very good players, really good organisation and we are so used to that in the Premier League. It’s not very different every three days so tomorrow we’re going to have to be really good again to win the game.”
Mikel Arteta
