New Aston Villa striker to get debut against Arsenal
Arsenal travel to Aston Villa on Monday for a fixture that would ordinarily give supporters some cause for concern, not least because of Unai Emery’s determination when facing his former club, especially at home.
The Villa side Arsenal will meet at Villa Park, however, is considerably different from the one that beat the Gunners at the end of 2025.
On that occasion, Emi Martinez, Ezri Konsa, Youri Tielemans, Morgan Rogers and Ollie Watkins all started.
Martinez has joined Chelsea for £7.5 million, alongside Rogers, who moved for £117 million.
Konsa is now at Arsenal following a £55 million transfer, Tielemans has joined Manchester United for £35 million, while Watkins has moved to Saudi Arabia for £50 million.
Former Arsenal youngster Donyell Malen is now on loan at Roma, while others I’ve never heard off have also been shipped out, at least temporarily, including two keepers, a defensive mid, two left wingers, a right back and a centreback.
Although Matty Cash and Emi Buendia, Villa’s goalscorers in that 2-1 win, remain, Emery is now working with a significantly reshaped side whose replacements have not yet had time to bed in.
After all those sales, Villa have had substantial funds to reinvest this summer, and they certainly did that.
They have signed midfielder Johan Manzambi from Freiburg for £50.97 million, Joao Gomes from Wolves for £38 million (sent off on his debut, suspended v Arsenal), Zion Suzuki from Parma for £25.6 million, left-back Matteo Ruggeri from Atletico Madrid for £17 million and Modou Keba Cisse from LASK for £4.75 million.
There have been others, too. Leon Gortzka, for instance, arrived on a free.
Alejandro Grancho has arrived on loan from Chelsea, while Aaron Wan-Bissaka has joined on loan from West Ham.
Villa are also reported to have a verbal agreement to sign Ibrahim Mbaye from Paris Saint-Germain.
In addition, former Chelsea striker Nicolas Jackson has joined Villa for a fee believed to be in the region of £65 million, reuniting with Emery, for whom he played 27 times at Villarreal, scoring three goals and providing three assists before the manager left for Villa.
Jackson was sold to Chelsea for £32 million the following year.
He scored 30 goals and registered 12 assists in 81 appearances for Chelsea before spending last season on loan with Bayern Munich, where he scored 11 goals and provided four assists in 34 matches.
Jackson is now in line to make his Villa debut against Arsenal on Monday night.
He has faced Arsenal four times in his career and is still waiting for his first victory, goal or assist against the Gunners, having drawn twice and lost the other two meetings.
