Aston Villa vs Arsenal preview, team news and how to stream

Arsenal will look to get back to winning ways when they take on Aston Villa at Villa Park on Saturday afternoon. 

The Gunners saw their impressive run of form come to an abrupt end with a 2-0 defeat at home to Liverpool on Wednesday night. Arsenal were arguably the better team before Diogo Jota opened the scoring early in the second half and Mikel Arteta was hugely frustrated to end the game with nothing to show for it.

The Spaniard will want to see an immediate response from his players when they take on Villa tomorrow afternoon. Arsenal head into the game sitting fourth in the table – one point ahead of Manchester United with two games in hand.

United don’t play this weekend, while West Ham [6th] and Tottenham [7th] play each other on Sunday, so this is a great opportunity for Arsenal to tighten their grip of fourth with a win over Villa.

However, that won’t be an easy task as the Villains are a rejuvenated side under Steven Gerrard. The hosts are now inside the top 10 but will be looking to bounce back from their disappointing 2-1 defeat to West Ham last time out.

Team news

Arsenal will assess the condition of Takehiro Tomiyasu before making a decision over his involvement tomorrow. The Japan international has struggled with calf issues over the past two months so Arteta is being cautious over his return to action.

Emile Smith Rowe was carrying a minor issue ahead of Arsenal’s defeat to Liverpool and only made a second half cameo appearance during that game. However, Arteta says the attacker is now ‘fine’ and is pushing for a recall tomorrow.

Otherwise, Arsenal have no other injury concerns to deal with so Arteta has virtually a fully fit squad to choose from.

Meanwhile at Aston Villa, they’ll continue to be without the services of Marvelous Nakamba due to a knee injury while Calum Chambers could miss out against his former club with a head injury.

Lucas Digne is also a major doubt for the game due to a thigh injury while Douglas Luis will need to be assessed after suffering a nasty cut to his mouth.

How to watch/stream

Aston Villa versus Arsenal will be broadcast live on BT Sport, kicking off at 12.30pm on Saturday. Subscribers can watch the match live on BT Sport on their TV or via the BT Sport app on their laptop, tablet or mobile device.

Those who don’t have a subscription may have to wait to watch official highlights after the game. However, some fans could choose to watch the match live on a dodgy stream that can be found online shortly before kick-off. There are always streams being posted on social media so they are easy to find – although obviously we cannot condone such a thing!

Expected line-ups

Villa: Martinez; Cash, Konsa, Mings, Young; McGinn, Sanson, Ramsey; Coutinho; Ings, Watkins

Arsenal: Ramsdale; Cedric, White, Gabriel, Tierney; Xhaka, Partey; Saka, Smith Rowe, Martinelli; Lacazette

Predicted score

Aston Villa 1-2 Arsenal: The Gunners will be desperate to put the Liverpool defeat behind them and get their top four push back on track. Arteta’s side have looked well organised and much more dangerous going forward over the past few months so they should be confident of getting a result at Villa Park.

Villa will no doubt give a good account of themselves as they’ve been hugely improved under Gerrard, however, we fancy Arsenal to edge a close game tomorrow afternoon.