Villa look to complete Premier League double over Gunners

Aston Villa and Arsenal will both be looking to bounce back from midweek defeats when they face off in Saturday’s lunchtime Premier League kick-off.

Aston Villa lost to West Ham last time out while Arsenal were beaten by Wolves and both sides will need a response.

Villa produced a stunning display to smash the Gunners 3-0 in north London in November.

Dean Smith’s side are a point and place better off than Mikel Arteta and co and have two games in hand over their opponents this weekend.

These two are eager to break into the European places this season and this clash will be a key one for their hopes of climbing up the table.

Aston Villa vs Arsenal: How to listen

This match will get under way at 12:30pm on Saturday, February 6.

Full coverage from Villa Park will be exclusively live on talkSPORT, with our pre-match build-up starting at 11am.

Reshmin Chowdhury will be your host and commentary will come from Alex Crook and Trevor Sinclair.

To tune in, click the radio player below or HERE for the live stream.

Here are the other ways to listen…

App iPhone – Download from the Apple store

Android – Download from Google Play

Radio – talkSPORT is available across the United Kingdom via DAB digital radio and on 1089 or 1053 AM.

TV – Listen to talkSPORT through your TV on the following channels: Sky: Channel 0108 Virgin Media: Channel 927 Freeview: Channel 723 Freesat: Channel 731

Aston Villa vs Arsenal: Team news

Aston Villa have no new injury concerns but will likely change things up following their defeat to West Ham.

Bertrand Traore, Trezeguet and new signing Morgan Sanson are all in line to start.

Kortney Hause and Wesley Moraes remain sidelined.

Arsenal, meanwhile, will be without Bernd Leno and David Luiz as they are both suspended following their red cards at Wolves.

January signing Mat Ryan could make his debut but is struggling with a slight hit problem.

Kieran Tierney is still out.

Aston Villa vs Arsenal: What has been said?

Aston Villa boss Dean Smith: “Arsenal are one of the big clubs in the league, had success, won the FA Cup last year, to go there and put in a performance as we did and get the result we did was excellent.

“It was on the back of a defeat against Southampton, so a really good performance, but Arsenal are a changed team now.

“They’ve had an upturn in form now and been climbing the league, it will be more of an evenly-matched game on Saturday.

“We’ve had some very high standards this season already and we keep speaking to the players, if we want to be a top team then we have to keep playing to those standards.

“The lads understand that as well and they know what they have to do to put it right.

“The lads have to make sure they’re ready for each game because it’s a tough league and can be punishing if you’re not right.”

Aston Villa vs Arsenal: Match stats and facts

• Aston Villa haven’t completed a league double over Arsenal since the first Premier League season in 1992/93 under Ron Atkinson, winning 1-0 in both games.
• Arsenal haven’t lost three league games in a row against Aston Villa since November 1993, when they lost their first three Premier League encounters with the Villans.
• Arsenal have failed to score in their last two league matches against Aston Villa, managing just two shots on target across those games, both in their 0-3 defeat earlier this season.
• Aston Villa have lost four of their last six Premier League games (W2), as many as they had in their previous 18 in the competition (W10 D4 L4).
• Arsenal lost their last match against Wolves, ending a seven game unbeaten run for the Gunners in the Premier League (W5 D2). They last lost consecutive league games in November/December, a run of three which began with defeat to Wolves.
• Aston Villa have conceded on average 1.6 goals per Premier League home game this season (14 goals in 9 games), in contrast to their away form which has seen them ship just 0.9 goals per game (10 in 11).
• Since Mikel Arteta’s first game in charge of Arsenal in December 2019, the Gunners have had more Premier League red cards than any other side (9). Arsenal saw both David Luiz and Bernd Leno sent off in their last league match against Wolves.
• Aston Villa striker Ollie Watkins netted twice at the Emirates earlier this season against Arsenal in their 3-0 Premier League win – only Didier Drogba has ever scored 2+ goals in consecutive Premier League games against the Gunners, doing so in the 2009/10 season.
• Aston Villa goalkeeper Emiliano Martínez kept a clean sheet in his first Premier League appearance against Arsenal earlier this season; the only two goalkeepers to keep clean sheets in their first two Premier League appearances against a club they’ve previously appeared for in the competition are Shaka Hislop vs Newcastle (1998-99) and Mark Schwarzer vs Middlesbrough (2008-09).
• Arsenal’s Nicolas Pépé has scored in each of his last three away games in the Premier League, having scored in just two of his first 18 on the road in the competition. The last Arsenal player to score in four straight away league games was Olivier Giroud between September-November 2015.