{"id":1753,"date":"2020-11-07T21:19:01","date_gmt":"2020-11-07T21:19:01","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.goonerholicsforever.com\/?p=1753"},"modified":"2020-11-08T21:58:55","modified_gmt":"2020-11-08T21:58:55","slug":"heroes-to-vanquish-villainous-villa","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.goonerholicsforever.com\/?p=1753","title":{"rendered":"Heroes to Vanquish Villainous Villa"},"content":{"rendered":"\n
\"\"
Nicolas Pepe converting his penalty against Aston Villa at the Grove, September 22, 2019 
\u00a9Michael Steele \/ Getty Images<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

The relentless cycle of Thursday\/Sunday matches continues this Sunday evening as Arsenal host Aston Villa, a club that has made strides toward solidifying their Premier League status after they were almost relegated in July.  Coming into this game Villa are eighth in the table having played one fewer match than the ninth-placed Gunners, who trail them on goal difference.  The Birmingham side have scored 15 goals and conceded nine, nosing them ahead of Arsenal who have scored nine but boast a league low of seven goals conceded.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Arsenal approach the match looking to build on last week\u2019s victory at Manchester United.  After four wins and three losses in their first seven league games, including a disappointing loss to Leicester in their last home fixture that featured Lacazette\u2019s undeservedly disallowed first half goal, Arsenal need to grab the points from Villa to push the club into a more distinctly upward trajectory ahead of next week\u2019s tough away fixture at Wolves, to be followed a week later by the season\u2019s first North London Derby.  In other words, this match would be a good time to sharpen up whatever needs sharpening.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Opposition<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Villa epitomise the craziness of this young Premier League season.  To say they have ridden a roller coaster would just about cover it.  They got off to a very fast start, winning their first four games including clean sheets against Sheffield United, Fulham and Leicester and a 7-2 drubbing of Liverpool; but their performances tailed off in the last two weeks in losses to Leeds and Southampton.  After using up a month\u2019s worth of goals against Liverpool, Villa failed to score against Leeds and last week trailed 0-4 to Southampton before fighting back with three late goals only to lose by 3-4.  They have scaled the heights and sunk to the depths so it is a bit of a mystery which direction they may be headed this week, but at times they have looked like one of the better clubs in the league, so Mikel Arteta and his men had best pay close attention. The Villans made several significant acquisitions in the offseason.  The three highest impact signings have been ex-Arsenal goalkeeper Emiliano Martinez, who has kept three clean sheets and helped calmed the defence; ex-Nottingham Forest right-back Matty Cash who has started six games, and added mobility and another attacking option on that side; and ex-Brentford striker Ollie Watkins, a danger man who has contributed four goals and one assist in six outings.    <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Arsenal XI<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Arsenal are on a decent run of results, especially considering their undefeated record in Carabao Cup and Europa League games, but having lost three of seven league matches already they really need a result this week.  There are very few reasons not to expect Mikel Arteta to pick the same team that did the business last Sunday but I have a feeling he might start Pepe in place of Willian, who otherwise would be making his third start in seven days.  Arteta\u2019s formation may be otherwise at the start, and it may change several times during the game, but here\u2019s one way we could line up:<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Leno<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Bellerin, Holding, Gabriel, Tierney<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Elneny, Partey, Saka<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Pepe, Lacazette, Aubameyang<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Goonerholics Pound<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Seeing as the Villans are among the most prolific scoring clubs in the Premier League at the moment, it could be a stretch to predict another clean sheet despite Arsenal\u2019s league best defensive record.  But a 2-1 score strikes me as a reasonable forecast considering the close proximity of the sides in the table, and 19\/2 were the best odds I spotted for that score.  The best odds I found on Pierre Emerick Aubameyang to be the first scorer were 3\/1, but (assuming he plays), Nicolas Pepe could be a decent punt at 7\/1 if you are looking for more lucrative payoff potential.  Not that I put my own money on those or any other unsure bets, of course.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Enjoy the game wherever you are watching, \u2018holics.  If Arsenal can score a couple of early goals it would be healthful not to have to watch from behind the sofa, so Come on You Gunners, we could use a sustained 90-minute performance to remember.  <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The relentless cycle of Thursday\/Sunday matches continues this Sunday evening as Arsenal host Aston Villa, a club that has made strides toward solidifying their Premier League status after they were almost relegated in July.  Coming into this game Villa are eighth in the table having played one fewer match than the ninth-placed Gunners, who trail them […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":12,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[5],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.goonerholicsforever.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1753"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.goonerholicsforever.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.goonerholicsforever.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.goonerholicsforever.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/12"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.goonerholicsforever.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=1753"}],"version-history":[{"count":6,"href":"https:\/\/www.goonerholicsforever.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1753\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1761,"href":"https:\/\/www.goonerholicsforever.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1753\/revisions\/1761"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.goonerholicsforever.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=1753"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.goonerholicsforever.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=1753"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.goonerholicsforever.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=1753"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}