Arsenal take on Aston Villa in today’s early Premier League kick-off at Villa Park.
The Gunners are five points ahead of second-placed Manchester City and have the opportunity to temporarily extend the advantage with a positive result against the Villans.
Unai Emery’s side, meanwhile, are six points adrift of Arsenal after four league wins on the bounce. The Gunners must turn up with a strong performance to beat the Midlands outfit.
Villa have been a bogey club for Arsenal with one win in the last four meetings, but that was a 2-0 victory at Villa Park last season. The Gunners will be aiming to replicate the feat.
Ahead of the game, we anticipate manager Mikel Arteta to make five changes to the starting XI.
Formation: 4-2-3-1
Predicted Line-up:
David Raya kept his eighth clean sheet of the league campaign against Brentford.
The Spaniard had a relatively quiet game, barring one fantastic save in the opening half. He will be eyeing another shutout.
There could be a couple of changes to the backline. Arteta has repeatedly said that it is a ‘matter of days’ before William Saliba could return to action from injury.
With the huge importance of the fixture, we won’t be surprised if the Frenchman is reinstated into the heart of the defence.
We anticipate him partnering with Piero Hincapie in central defence. Cristhian Mosquera could be out for six to eight weeks with an ankle injury. Gabriel Magalhaes is sidelined until the New Year.
Ben White was the man of the match against the Bees. He bagged an assist while winning 10 duels and four tackles. Despite this, he could drop to the bench.
With Villa known for quick counter-attacks, Arteta could reinstate Jurrien Timber in the right-back role.
The Netherlands international obviously has good recovery pace and fares better in one-on-one duels.
Riccardo Calafiori is assured to continue at left-back ahead of Myles Lewis-Skelly once more.
Declan Rice suffered an injury scare in midweek, but confirmed after the game that he is ‘fine‘.
The Englishman is poised to line up alongside Martin Zubimendi in the heart of the midfield.
Martin Odegaard is likely to feature as the attacking midfielder against the Villans, but we anticipate a complete overhaul of the front three.
Noni Madueke had some good phases against Brentford on the right wing and played a big part in White’s assist for Mikel Merino’s opening goal.
Still, he is set to drop to the bench for Bukayo Saka, who is usually an undisputed starter. He showed his quality as a substitute with a late goal in midweek.
Leandro Trossard could be deemed fit for the game, but we would personally prefer Eberechi Eze to occupy the left wing instead of Gabriel Martinelli.
Martinelli won none of his duels against Chelsea (0/5) while his success rate was 33 percent on Wednesday (3/9). He squandered one good chance to score.
Eze has a terrific record against Villa, scoring five goals and providing three assists in 14 meetings. He should get the nod as a left winger in today’s game.
We had initially preferred to go with Mikel Merino upfront, given his sublime recent form. The Spaniard has five goal contributions in his last four league matches.
However, this is a game where Viktor Gyokeres’ services could be required from the off. Villa operate with a high line, which could be ideal for the Swede.
Gyokeres is more suited for the game with his strong physique and pace to run behind the backline.
How Arsenal could line up vs Aston Villa
Stats from Transfermarkt.com & Sofascore.com