Match Preview: Arsenal v Villa

Who are we playing?
Arsenal  on Saturday 20th September at 3pm

Where are we playing?
Villa Park

Can I go?
It's amazing how being second in the league can sell tickets. Many areas have sold out, so you can go (buy now) but possibly not where you prefer to sit.

Easy to get to?
Amazingly, with a huge crowd expected at Villa Park there will be NO FOOTBALL SPECIALS on the trains, so expect an irritatingly long wait and LOTS of queuing at Aston and Witton stations after the match.

Can I watch it on telly?
Amazingly, we have a Saturday 3 o'clocker so it won't be on proper UK telly. Plenty of dodgy web streams and pubs with foreign dishes are available if you wanna watch on the box.

Big game?
Huge.

It would be brilliant to keep the momentum going from our surprising points laden start to the season.

Tom Fox and Paul Lambert were in the crowd at Dortmund

Arsenal looked positively ropey at the back against Borussia Dortmund, but then the German side committed men forwards in great numbers. We're more likely to try to catch them on the break.

This could turn out to be quite a dour tactical encounter but both sides are more than capable of giving the ball away in dangerous positions so we could see periods of dull play peppered with moments of heart in the mouth excitement.

Paul Lambert and Tom Fox, the Villa chief executive, were in the crowd at the Westfalenstadion on Tuesday, so we've done our homework.

Nothing to see here

Do Arsenal have any famous fans?
Well there's Dara O'Briain off of Mock the Week, the man who sits on Stephen Fry's right hand on QI, Alan Davies and of course provider of background music for middle class dinner parties, Dido.

We've got fiddle playing scruffbox Nigel Kennedy.

So we win



Who's playing for us?

Vlaar unlikely to play on Saturday. Still nursing his calf.... pic.twitter.com/mmvE2yAyTz
— villamad.co.uk (@villamadtweets) September 18, 2014

Nathan Baker surprised a few with a solid, largely competent performance in the absence of Ron Vlaar. Former outcast Alan Hutton will be hoping to celebrate his new contract with another solid display while Tom Cleverley will be hoping for a home debut after fitting in remarkably quickly up at Anfield.

Big Chris is training again but we'd expect this one to be a bit quick for him and he's more likely to feature against Chelsea.

Fragile

Who's playing for them?
It had looked as though Jack Wilshere might be missing after a knock to his ankle in Dortmund but he may well play now. Mathieu Debuchy is defo missing having buggered up his ankle ligaments. Danny Welbeck will be keen to get a goal to kickstart his Arsenal account.



He said, She said
tbc

Any useless stats?
Of course, here you go:

• Arsenal have beaten us 77 times while we have 66 wins. There have been 45 draws.

• Last time we beat Arsenal at Villa Park, Dion Dublin was playing and we nearly killed Father Christmas

• If we win against Arsenal on Saturday it'll be our first Villa Park win over them this century.

• Our last win over Arsenal was at the Emirates, two goals from Big Chris and one from Tony Moon giving us a 3-1 success.

Prediction
Going for a 1-1 draw.