Aston Villa vs Arsenal, Saturday, 5:15. Live on Setanta

atvkwkad · 11-30-2007, 09:17 PM

Quote:

Two in-form sides meet at Villa Park on Saturday evening as Aston Villa host leaders Arsenal.

Martin O'Neill's side have won their last four Premier League outings, including a 4-0 midweek win at Blackburn, while The Gunners are yet to suffer defeat in the league this season.

History is against Villa, with the Midlands outfit going 17 league outings without success against Arsenal, a run spanning nearly nine years.

Villa's last league win against the North Londoners came back in December 1998 when Dion Dublin netted twice in an unlikely 3-2 success after trailing 2-0 at half-time.

However, Arsenal travel to Villa Park on the back of a rare loss after slumping to a 3-1 defeat to Sevilla on Tuesday despite taking the lead through Eduardo da Silva.

Reo-Coker is suspended for us, Agbonlahor and Petrov should be fit.

Fabregas is out for Arsenal, though I read earlier that Hleb and Clichy have travelled up.

Both sides in form (we've won 4 straight, and 5 unbeaten scoring 12 and conceeding two, Arsenal have won three and drawn two of their last 5 league games), and both teams like to attack so it should end up being a decent game.

Teams like Arsenal cause us problems - our defence and midfield seem to struggle against excellent movement, as our (only) defeats against Liverpool, Man City and Man Utd testify.

We're on a high, so the Villa Law dictates that we'll get gubbed here. I think we can nick something though, but we'll need an awful lot of luck/poor Arsenal finishing.

Carson

Mellberg
Laursen
Knight
Bouma

Gardner
Petrov
Barry
Young

Carew
Gabby

will be the team if everyone is fit, if not then I've no idea. Maloney would most likely be invovled in that case. Wont attempt to guess Arsenal's team.

2-0 Arsenal, but Id not rule out us nicking a draw.

Mon Villa.

Asmodeus · 11-30-2007, 09:21 PM

We'll play 4-5-1, dominate possession and lose 2-1.

Father Senegal · 11-30-2007, 09:23 PM

I bet no one can guess why Im going to miss the first half of this game.

Brian of Nazareth · 11-30-2007, 09:24 PM

I have no idea how this will turn out, could be close, we could get dicked on for being suddenly overconfident ( unlikely I think ), or we could nick it.

However, if we're going to beat Arsenal, we're going to do it when we're high on form and confidence and scoring plenty of goals, and they've just lost in Sevilla, albeit with a weakened side.

Our record v the top 4 this season is 1 win 2 defeats, would be nice to see if we can level it up. Might as well be optimistic

Villa 2 Arsenal 1, Gardner and Carew for us, Adebayor for them

Brian of Nazareth · 11-30-2007, 09:25 PM

Quote:

Originally posted by Asmodeus:
We'll play 4-5-1, dominate possession and lose 2-1.

hopefully!

You will probably average 70% possession at leas for the game, it's frustrating to watch at times, especially against dangerous sides, but we seem to play only on the break and try and absorb pressure. If our defence holds and Fabregas is missing...

atvkwkad · 11-30-2007, 09:26 PM

you're certain to dominate possession - its not the way we play.

Tactically it'll be interesting - we like to sit back and use our pace to break on teams (even at home), but that went tits up big time against United and I fear Arsenal could do something similar. In these bigger games, I think we need to retain the ball much better - its ok against sides like Derby, Birmingham, Boro and even Blackburn, but against the top sides its just playing right into their hands.