Aston Villa v Arsenal: Premier League – live
⚽️ Premier League updates from the 8pm BST kick-off
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Unai Emery embraces his Arsenal successor Mikel Arteta warmly … presumably congratulating him on his 250th Premier League match in charge. And then the warmest of ovations to remember the recently passed Jimmy Rimmer, who won the league and European Cup for Villa, and also played for Arsenal during the 1970s, winning their player of the season award in 1974-75. Finally Arsenal get the ball rolling.
The teams are out! You know what everyone’s wearing. A reduced capacity of around 37,000 at Villa Park, with the North Stand closed for the season to facilitate its expansion. We’ll be off in a couple of minutes.
Pre-match postbag. “Poor Villa. They were so great last year. Then management sells off the heart of their team. Today they will get embarrassed by the Gunners. What a present to their ever loyal fans” – Mary Waltz
“In all the fuss about Ollie Watkins refusing to play and then leaving, i’d forgotten that Tammy Abraham was on Villa’s books. What must he be thinking that they were so desperate to get Nicolas Jackson into the club (and first team) despite underwhelming at Chelsea and doing nothing at Bayern? Didn’t Abraham do pretty well last year for Villa and was a reliable goalscorer during his time in Italy before signing?” – David Wall
“Three Arsenal goals against Coventry stemmed from the opposing centre-back positions. Aston Villa need good quality centre-backs. The current centre-back crop is no good” – AnhTuan Nguyen Huynh
“Drake’s seven is still the record for most goals in a top-flight game. I wonder if even Haaland could equal that” – Andrew Goudie
“My goodness, Scott, I thought that the Americans were overdoing it with the obscure stats during the World Cup with their recanting of how Paraguay had very rarely scored from outside the box at their nine tournament appearances since 1930. And there you are Ted Drakeing us back to the same era in an MBM. You’ll have a fine career as a Soccer TV color* commentator here in the USA USA USA should you ever wish to leave Old Blighty (*leave the U behind you at Heathrow)” – Justin Kavanagh
Arsenal are also wearing new duds tonight. Their third-choice kit is gorgeous too, and will whisk everyone of a certain vintage straight back to this …
… which should kickstart a campaign to reinstate the little pyramid of AFC cannonballs that used to rest beside the cannon on the crest. Someone, somewhere, make it happen.
Aston Villa will be debuting their new kit tonight. Any old excuse to revisit this wonderfully realised nonsense …
Unai Emery’s double-breasted sports coat is obviously the standout piece in that film, but the Villa shirt itself is retro glam of the highest order. There is a problem though. As far as I can make out, Villa have ditched the blue sleeves on four previous occasions in their history, with results that can be best described as mixed. They won promotion to the Premier League with an all-claret top (trim doesn’t count) in 2018-19. However when they first ditched the blue sleeves, in 1969-70, they fell to the bottom of the old Second Division in short order, and though they got permission from the powers that be to whack the blue back on, halfway through the season, they still went down to the third tier for the first (and as yet only) time in their history. So why they tried it again for a period during the mid-Eighties is anyone’s guess, because predictably enough, the club were relegated to the old Second Division wearing it, having been European champions just five years previously. Let’s see how this one pans out, then.
The fourth occasion? A totally nondescript campaign in 2001-02 which completely ruins the rhythm of this entry. So I’m not mentioning it.
Unai Emery’s turn to talk to Sky. “Good evening … the first match was not as planned but we must keep going forward … today we are playing at home, the first match, the second day of the Premier League … we are looking forward to how we are going to respond … we need to do that as soon as possible … today is a good match for us … it is the best team, Arsenal, so it is difficult … but with our supporters here we are always feeling confident … we need to transmit our positive energy to our supporters … they can come back with the same positive energy we need … we have experienced players … they know how we want to play … today is a challenge … we are changing things, but there are no excuses … we must perform today and adapt as soon as possible … the new players … the priority is the Premier League … I am positive … optimistic … I want to play against the best teams.”
Mikel Arteta speaks to Sky Sports. “We will have time to make changes throughout the game … Villa are a super well-coached team … we know how tough it is to come and win here … we are very conscious of that … but we are very ambitious … we want to be dominant … to suffocate the opponent … to be better than them.”
Tonight’s game has implications at both ends of the Premier League table (and yes it is far too early to be taking these sorts of things totally seriously, but then try telling that to supporters of Hull City). Arsenal can go top if they win by two clear goals, while Aston Villa would drop to the bottom should that happen. But if Villa win, they are guaranteed to rise to 13th place, and could theoretically go as high as eighth, though they’d have to beat Arsenal by seven goals to do that, and they’ve never run up seven against them in 122 years of trying. (Arsenal have scored seven in this fixture, mind, and one man got them all: Ted Drake, in a 7-1 rout in 1935. Drake took nine shots that day; of the other two, one hit the bar and the other, the striker insisted, crossed the line but wasn’t given. But we’re going well off piste here.)
Aston Villa make two changes to the team who found themselves four goals down after 31 minutes at Brighton last weekend. In come two debutants: goalkeeper Zion Suzuki and striker Nicolas Jackson. Marco Bizot drops to the bench, while João Gomes, sent off in that aforementioned debacle-by-the-sea, is suspended. Villa have three other potential debutants on their bench in Alejandro Garnacho, Matteo Ruggeri and Aaron Wan-Bissaka.
Arsenal, coming off the back of their three-goal win over Coventry, are unsurprisingly unchanged. Bruno Guimarães is back from injury and on the bench, waiting to make his first Premier League appearance for the Gunners … as is Ezri Konsa, a Villa player just ten days ago.
Aston Villa: Suzuki, Cash, Lindelof, Torres, Maatsen, Kamara, Hemmings, McGinn, Barkley, Buendia, Jackson.
Subs: Bizot, Mings, Ruggeri, Garnacho, Abraham, Bogarde, Wan-Bissaka, Edward, Lynch.
Arsenal: Raya, White, Mosquera, Gabriel, Calafiori, Lewis-Skelly, Rice, Saka, Odegaard, Tzolis, Havertz.
Subs: Arrizabalaga, Hincapie, Eze, Gyokeres, Konsa, Madueke, Merino, Zubimendi, Guimaraes.
Referee: Jarred Gillett
VAR: James Bell
Premier League Matchweek Two (I’ve given up fighting it) concludes with perhaps the most intriguing game of the ten. Mikel Arteta looks to be entering his imperial phase with Arsenal: the reigning champions, widely expected to retain their crown, officially the second-best team in Europe with aspirations to go one better next year. And they started their campaign last week with a breezy 3-0 win over Coventry City. All good.
Aston Villa by contrast are in a state of turmoil. The side that came fourth last season and won Villa’s first major trophy for 30 years has since been stripped of most of its moving parts with extreme prejudice, and though replacement pieces have been ordered, what remained last weekend got thumped 4-0 at Brighton. Unai Emery will need to piece everything together in double-quick time to avoid things spiralling out of control.
Taking all that into consideration, all signs point to victory for the Gunners this evening. And that’s before we consider their record at Villa Park: 15 wins in the Premier League era, more than they’ve managed at any other away venue. But it’s never quite as simple as that, and Villa have won four of their last seven home games against tonight’s opponents, and their last three home fixtures against the reigning champions (Manchester City in 2023-24 and 2024-25, Liverpool last season). So that’s muddied the water a bit. Can Villa rebound from last weekend’s humiliation-by-the-sea, and in doing so spoil Arteta’s 250th Premier League match in charge? Or will Arsenal just keep on keepin’ on? We start finding out at 8pm BST. It’s on!
