Kick-off: 1230, 18/02/2023
Stadium: Villa Park
TV: BT Sport
If there is such a thing as a good time to play Arsenal then Aston Villa will be hoping this is it.
The Gunners were knocked off the top of the table this week – having looked down on the rest since the third week of the season – when Manchester City won 3-1 at the Emirates.
It was a third defeat in four for Mikel Arteta’s team but Villa too will have something of the wounded animal about them.
They have lost two league games in a row for the first time since October and both sides will be desperate to get back on track.
We’re expecting a fast start from the hosts and Unai Emery’s side to score first at 17/10 is our first Aston Villa vs Arsenal prediction.
Aston Villa Odds
Emery will be demanding better from his side after they conceded a goal with less than five minutes on the clock before losing 3-1 to Manchester City last weekend.
He said: “The first half was the worst performance we’ve had in the matches we’ve played. In the second half we tried to forget the result and continue in our work, trying to improve and be competitive and like we were in the last matches we played.
“We played better and scored a goal. But they deserved to win and we have to take a lot of information from the match and use it.”
Villa have scored in every game they have played since losing 4-0 at Newcastle in October and will be encouraged by how ragged the Gunners defence looked at times against City.
Emery also spoke about looking for more from his top scorer Ollie Watkins and the striker is 13/2 to break the deadlock in the Aston Villa vs Arsenal odds.
Last Villa line-up: Martinez, Young, Konsa, Chambers, Digne, J Ramsey, Kamara, Douglas Luiz, Buendia, Bailey, Watkins.
Arsenal Odds
Arteta now has to pick his players up after they slipped off the summit.
As the dust settled on the City defeat, he said: “We are all feeling down, especially because they knew we could do much better to get a very different result and we just give them the game.
“We have to pick the points because the performances are there for sure. What we’ve done today against this team, believe me that wasn’t the game that they wanted to play.
“But we wanted the points and we didn’t get them and at the end the games are decided in the boxes and we have given too much away today. We weren’t ruthless enough to convert our chances. That’s what we have to improve on.”
They may be lacking a 20-goal striker but Martin Odegaard, Bukayo Saka and Gabriel Martinelli have been weighing in and have 23 between them while January buy Leandro Trossard has added one to the seven he claimed during the first half of the season as a Brighton player.
Villa Park could be the place to be for a cracker this weekend and both teams to score in both halves at 12/1 completes our Aston Villa vs Arsenal betting tips.
Last Arsenal line-up: Ramsdale, Tomiyasu, Saliba, Gabriel, Zinchenko, Odegaard, Jorginho, Xhaka, Saka, Nketiah, Martinelli.
Additional stats
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