Some predicted line-ups from Pain in the Arsenal:
Aston Villa: Martinez; Cash, Konsa, Torres, Digne; Kamara, Luiz; Tielemans, McGinn; Bailey, Watkins.
Arsenal: Raya; White, Saliba, Gabriel, Zinchenko; Rice, Ødegaard, Havertz; Saka, Jesus, Martinelli.
The XI given for us looks likely given recent selections. There seems to be a question mark over Tomiyasu's inclusion whether he's "fit" or not (or White is "fit" or not, or Zinchenko is defensively safe enough, and more).
We might see Trossard again in the midfield, but I expect Havertz for this more bruising away tie. If Arteta selects Jorginho I will be very upset.
Unlike our crop of league-leading thoroughbreds, Villa are fielding a team of tyros rapidly becoming household names. That's in part due to the performances a certain Bond villain called Unai Emery is extracting from them, with overpaid bridge troll Emi Martinez currently outperforming all our keeping options, and our 21–22 £25m winter transfer window reject Douglas Luiz looking like one to hold onto.
Villa are on a red hot streak of form and in midweek they imperiously pushed City down to fourth in the league for the first time in years. They've won 14 on the trot at Villa Park. Both teams have played midweek, but we've enjoyed an extra day of rest after our more emotional, taxing encounter with the old Lutonians.
Given that this match has a bright and early Saturday kickoff, I hope the Arsenal espresso machine's in good order. Edited: The actual kickoff is 5:30pm, but I'd still go a coffee.
We are up against a very big challenge, which is either an "acid test" or a freebie depending on how you think about our tiny amount of daylight at the top of the table. The mettle of this season's Arsenal will be tested in earnest. Villa have adopted a high, tactical defensive line widely praised as "Europe's best offside trap" and will try to prevent our customary territorial domination. Against City Villa had a mere ten times as many scoring opportunities, which is an extraordinary stat in this era.
The Villa Emery tinker-man tactical outlook may even be antithetical to our present Controlball™ formula, where we lumber in risk averse fashion into the final third, and then lay a hemispheric siege, horseshoeing the enemy into a lukewarm, entropic heat death.
Perhaps at present we've got ever so slightly more than a Rodri-less City with a misfiring Haaland in terms of cohesion and threats, but if we get all three points here … it's on, lads.
