Villa’s yellow collection, Timber’s progress, Smith Rowe to start….

 

• Arsenal v Villa: It’s that ref that Arsenal should never have to face again
• Arsenal v Aston Villa: the utterly unexpected tactics
• Some very good reasons why Arsenal will beat Villa on Sunday

By Sir Hardly Anyone

Aston Villa are third in the yellow card table at present with 83 cards waved at their players this season.    That compares with 46 for Arsenal – Arsenal having fewer yellow cards than any other team in the Premier League

Villa’s top carded players are Douglas Luiz with 13, and Nicolo Zanilo with 11 cards.   Kai Havertz is the only Arsenal player to have reached that number.

Below that Villa have two players on nine cards (Arsenal have no one on that number), and so it runs on.  Indeed it must be affecting the style of play of these players, picking up as they do for Villa, an average of approaching three cards a game.  It’s an Unai Emery thing.

We also have the news that Timber has been in full training mode for several weeks.  He might well be just what the club needs in the final games of the season to give the opposition a surprise at a moment.

It is also worth remembering that Timber is only 22, so although he has sadly missed this season, he’s still got a lot of football left in him.   He’ll be on the bench today and might even get a game if Arsenal win the league with a game or two to spare.

Arsenal have so far used 22 different players in the starting XI for the league programme this season, and Soares, Elneny and Nwaneri as subs – thus using all 25 available slots.

Moving on …

Aston Villa have Douglas Luiz suspended after getting his 10 yellow cards, Matty Cash and Clement Lenglet are back in training and might be risked but Tyrone Mings, Jacob Ramsey, Boubacar Kamara and Emi Buendia are the headline injuries for Villa.  

Looking at the last ten games table it is interesting to see that the “big 7” we talked about from the start of the season are all in the top eight.   The one member of the “seven” that hasn’t quite made the top seven of late is Manchester United, who along with Chelsea have spent much of the season appearing to have interests elsewhere.

And it is, in my view, worth staying with tables such as the last six and last ten games because they do, at this stage of the season, mean a lot more in terms of form than the actual league table.

This is especially so when we look at goal difference.   On the last ten games’ table Arsenal are averaging over three goals a game scored, and under half a goal conceded per game.  Aston Villa are not doing badly at 2.2 goals a game scored, but they also have fractionally under two goals a game against them in the last ten.

So if Villa hold onto their position I guess we might consider the “big eight next season”… although Chelsea will have to pull their fingers out soon to continue to qualify as a “big team”.   Little stadium, no serious new stadium plans, sitting half way down the league…  It’s been downhill all the way since winning the Champions League.  Here’s the last ten table…

Pos	Team	P	W	D	L	F	A	GD	Pts
1	Arsenal	10	9	1	0	33	4	+29	28
2	Man City	10	7	3	0	22	7	+15	24
3	Liverpool	10	7	2	1	25	12	+13	23
4	Newcastle U	10	5	3	2	25	19	+6	18
5	Aston Villa	10	5	2	3	22	19	+3	17
6	Tottenham Ho	10	5	2	3	18	16	+2	17
7	Chelsea	10	4	4	2	21	21	0	16
8	Man Utd	10	4	3	3	19	16	+3	15

 

We might also note, courtesy of the BBC  that Arsenal have five more clean sheets this season than anyone else (at least before this weekend).  The previous best was 18 in 2015/16, so that is still beatable.

As for Saka, a goal between now and the end of the season will make him the first English player to score 15 league goals for the club since Ian Wright.  If Trossard comes on as a sub and scores two he’ll have equalled Giroud’s six from the bench in 2016/17.    (Where do the BBC get these facts?)

As for Aston Villa we know they are fouth, 11 points behind Liverpool in third, but here’s another factoid, “They are unbeaten in their last nine league away games against London sides,” their longest run without defeat in London in their entire league history.

But when they concede one, they generally concede two (having let in two in ten minutes five times in the last seven games, and three in nine minutes against Brentford last weekend).

And for a change there is some debate about the team.   The Standard goes with

Raya;

White, Saliba, Gabriel, Zinchenko;

Odegaard, Rice, Havertz;

Saka, Trossard, Martinelli

The Guardian has an alternative

Raya;

White, Saliba, Gabriel, Zinchenko;

Odegaard, Jorginho, Rice

Saka, Havertz, Jesus

90 Mins has one variation

Raya;

White, Saliba, Gabriel, Zinchenko;

Jorginho, Odegaard, Rice;

Saka, Havertz, Trossard

While Sports Mole, who often seem to have an ear somewhere inside the ground, and an ability to write coherent English, so I do like to take note of what they come with, say

Raya;

White, Saliba, Gabriel, Zinchenko;

Rice, Odegaard, Smith Rowe;

Saka, Havertz, Martinelli

I think I rather like the look of that.