Aston Villa take on Arsenal at Villa Park in Saturday’s evening kick-off in what promises to be an enthralling clash at the top end of the Premier League table.
The Gunners were beaten both home and away by Villa last season so Mikel Arteta will be demanding a more positive result as he looks to finally beat Manchester City to the title.
The Arsenal boss has made one change from the side that beat Wolves on the opening weekend. Jurrien Timber is recalled to make his first start of the season after recovering from an ACL injury that kept him out for the vast majority of the 2023/24 campaign.
Oleksandr Zinchenko is the man to make way as Timber comes in to start at left-back. Ben White starts once again at right-back for Arsenal with William Saliba and Gabriel Magalhaes continuing their impressive partnership in the middle of defence.
Thomas Partey keeps his place in midfield along with Declan Rice so Jorginho remains on the bench. Martin Odegaard captains the Gunners once again and he’ll be looking to guide his troops to a win at Villa Park.
Gabriel Martinelli keeps his place on the left wing while Bukayo Saka starts on the right flank after an impressive outing against Wolves that saw him register a goal and an assist.
Kia Havertz opened the scoring for Arsenal last weekend and the German keeps his place up front today. Gabriel Jesus is ruled out with a minor groin injury while Fabio Vieira isn’t involved amid reports he’s set to join Porto on loan.
However, Eddie Nketiah is an option from the bench today despite links to Nottingham Forest while Leandro Trossard and Reiss Nelson are other attacking options for Arteta.
As for Villa, Emi Martinez will be looking to get one over his former side again while Ollie Watkins leads the line up front with John McGinn and Leon Bailey offering support.
Here are the confirmed line-ups:
Aston Villa
Martinez; Cash, Konsa, Torres, Digne; Onana, Tielemans; Bailey, Rogers, McGinn; Watkins
Subs: Gauci, Carlos, Maatsen, Nedeljkovic, Barkley, Buendia, Philogene, Duran, Ramsey
Arsenal
Raya; White, Saliba, Gabriel, Timber; Odegaard, Partey, Rice; Saka, Havertz, Martinelli
Subs: Ramsdale, Zinchenko, Kiwior, Calafiori, Jorginho, Nelson, Nwaneri, Trossard, Nketiah.
