Revenge in Mind as Arsenal Storm Villa Park

Barring Arsenal two losses to Aston Villa last season, the Gunners would have been referred to as Premier League’s defending champions and not Manchester City. Therefore, revenge will be on Mikel Arteta’s and his men’s minds when they travel to Aston Villa this evening. Unai Emery did the double over his old team last season, firstly edging a narrow win at Villa Park before two late goals at the Emirates in the final weeks of the campaign took away the title initiative from Arsenal as they lost out to the Citizens by a margin of two points

Arsenal managers past and present collide in the West Midlands this evening, when the Gunners make the trip to tackle Unai Emery’s Aston Villa in the Premier League.

Both sides have three points on the board after one outing, as the Lions edged out West Ham United 2-1 on the opening weekend, while Mikel Arteta’s team put two unanswered goals past Wolverhampton Wanderers.

Had Jhon Duran got his way earlier in the transfer window, the Colombian striker would be donning a different shade of claret than the one he currently sports, having teased a move to West Ham on social media before a deal ultimately fell through.

Duran watched on for an hour at the London Stadium last weekend as a Lucas Paqueta penalty cancelled out Amadou Onana’s opening goal, and after Emery’s men wasted a few opportunities to restore their advantage, Duran appropriately hammered the nail into the Hammers’ coffin 11 minutes from time.

The fledgling forward celebrated his winner by pointing at the London Stadium turf in front of the Villa fans – a gesture that likely signalled his intent to stay with Emery’s side rather than remain at West Ham’s ground – as he snapped the Lions’ four-match winless sequence in the Premier League.

Based on the volume of chances they created, Villa should have put Julen Lopetegui’s men to the sword without the need for the South American’s late intervention, but the Lions are now on the cusp of opening a Premier League season with back-to-back wins for just the fourth time.

Formerly prevailing in an astonishing 15 Premier League games in a row at their home ground in 2023, Emery’s side have since lost their consistency on their own patch in terms of victories, but not goals, having scored at least twice in their last eight matches at Villa Park.

Speaking of teams scoring multiple times in front of their own fans, Arsenal’s inaugural game of 2024-25 saw them host a Wolves side whom they had scored against in 33 successive matches, a streak that became 34 when Kai Havertz nodded in Bukayo Saka’s delivery.

The Arsenal of old appeared to be back for a brief moment, though, as Arteta’s men initially failed to build on that slender advantage and allowed Gary O’Neil’s team back into the contest, but another Havertz-Saka link-up in the second half ended with the latter beating Jose Sa at his near post. Arsenal have and will continue to march to more convincing wins than last weekend’s, although some of Arteta’s troops may have still been shaking off the summer cobwebs, and keeping Wolves at bay ensured that their Premier League winning sequence would stretch to a praiseworthy seven matches.

Also boasting the away-day specialists label in the Premier League, Arsenal have accrued an astounding 25 points from a possible 27 in top-flight games on the road in 2024, keeping seven clean sheets in those nine matches and shipping just three goals in total.

However, Villa were the only team to achieve a Premier League double over Arsenal last season – winning 1-0 at home before a shock 2-0 Emirates success – meaning that one-time Gunners manager Emery has the visitors’ number in more ways than one.