Aston Villa face Arsenal in the Premier League on Saturday evening, and Unai Emery has named his starting line-up for the encounter.
Villa arrive in north London looking for a fourth consecutive win across all competitions, as we’ve made a positive start to the new year and will hopefully extend that improved run of form this weekend.
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It will be difficult to do so though given the quality of the home side and their ambitions of winning a league title this year, and so we have to produce a top performance that builds on what we’ve seen in the last three outings.
Speaking in his pre-match press conference, Emery confirmed that John McGinn, Ross Barkley, Diego Carlos and Pau Torres were all ruled out due to injury, but new signing Donyell Malen was set to be available for selection as he looks to make his Villa debut.
After keeping a clean sheet and securing all three points at Everton in midweek, the expectation was that the Villa boss wouldn’t change too much, and as per the club’s post below, he makes just one switch with Ian Maatsen coming in for Lucas Digne at left-back.
There is also an important boost on the bench as Malen does indeed make the matchday squad, and so he’ll be hoping to get on the pitch at some stage and make his mark immediately.
It’s a strong Villa line-up matched by a strong bench, and with physicality, pace, movement and creativity in abundance, it’s hoped that it’s a balanced and controlled performance that sets the foundation for us to secure all three points.
We’ll certainly need another strong defensive effort to build on, but that needs to be matched by a sharp and precise display from our attacking players with a clinical end product to our play, and if that all clicks, there is undoubtedly a big opportunity here for Villa to cause an upset and make it two wins on the bounce on the road against the Gunners.
This evening’s team to take on Arsenal 👊#ARSAVL pic.twitter.com/xTzduD2fTD
— Aston Villa (@AVFCOfficial) January 18, 2025
