Thursday 10 December 2015

Match Preview: Villa v Arsenal

by Dek Hogan 

Who are we playing?
Arsenal on Sunday 13th December 2015 at 1.30pm

Where are we playing?
Villa Park, you may know where it is, but security will still be tight so advice is to get there early. You wouldn't want to miss any Villa Park excitement now would you?

Can I go?
Yep, tickets still on sale but don't leave it too long if you want to bag your favourite spot. Might be worth checking your season ticket holding mates are going first though. People are so disenchanted at the minute that there may be a few going begging.

Easy to get to?
Easy peasy lemon squeezy. Despite the fact that Birmingham is chock-a-block with roadworks. The German Market is up and running if you fancy a weissbier or two on the way. Let's hope the trains are running properly.

Can I watch it on telly?
Sky which won't be as good now Gary Neville has buggered off to Spain.

Garde vs Wenger
Big game?
Free hit really.

No one in their right mind expects us to do anything but lose to Arsenal. However we've overcome the odds before (admittedly not this season) so who knows what is possible.

What we do know is that we haven't won a league game at Villa Park since early May, expectations are at an all time low and player confidence is not great either.

Arsenal will certainly be on a high having completed an unlikely run-in to secure their place in the knockout stages of the Champions League and they arrive with some key players getting back to fitness. If they are at the top of their game, we can expect a total pasting.

It doesn't always work out like that though. The first quarter of the Southampton game was a horror show in which - had they been in any sort of form - Southampton would normally have buried us. We survived that onslaught and even managed to take the lead, unlikely as it seemed at the time.

In fact, in the final analysis, despite our general inferiority, we only lost the game due to some schoolboy defending from Carlos Sanchez.

Certainly the improved performance gives Remi an conundrum with Clark available again and hopefully Richards (still struggling) too.


Do Arsenal have any famous fans?

Piers Fucking Morgan.

We've got fiddle playing scruffbox Nigel Kennedy off of Radio 3.

So we win.

Who's playing for us?
God knows. Not sure Garde does. Kozak managed a couple more for the babbies the other night and it's hard to see how we'd be any worse off by giving him a go. After such a long time out, the man needs games if he's gonna get back to his best. Mad Jack is off the naughty step and will push for a recall.  Whether the returning Gabby can force his way into the side is an interesting one.


Who's playing for them?
Word is that Alexis Sanchez might be fit enough to play. Bugger. That lad knows where the goal is. Tomas Rosicky, Jack Wilshere, Francis Coquelin, Mikel Arteta, Santi Cazorla are all on sick notes.


Any useless stats?
Of course, here you go:
  • The least said about our last encounter with Arsenal the better.
  • We have 66 wins over Arsenal while they have beaten us on 80 occassions. There have been 45 draws


Prediction
Going for a 2-5 to Arsenal

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