- Why does one referee in line to see the same team 8 times this season?
- Four of the top five players in the Premier League play for Arsenal
By Tony Attwood
There are two tables that give us an insight into the match against Villa tomorrow – the home and away comparison, and the last six games comparison.
So first here is Arsenal at home v Aston Villa away
| Team | P | W | D | L | F | A | GD | Pts | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Arsenal ho me | 9 | 8 | 1 | 0 | 22 | 4 | 18 | 25 |
| 3 | Aston Villa away | 9 | 7 | 1 | 1 | 15 | 7 | 8 | 22 |
Obviously Arsenal are slightly better off here, being undefeated at home, while Villa have lost one game away. But although that rating is close there is no doubt that the goals tally tells a different story, with Arsenal having a ten goal better difference. That suggests a narrow victory to Arsenal, although perhaps only by one goal.
But we can also of course consider the last six games and here we find that Villa have been doing better than Arsenal being on a perfect winning run.
| Team | P | W | D | L | F | A | GD | Pts | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Man City | 6 | 6 | 0 | 0 | 19 | 7 | +12 | 18 |
| 2 | Aston Villa | 6 | 6 | 0 | 0 | 14 | 8 | +6 | 18 |
| 3 | Liverpool | 6 | 4 | 2 | 0 | 12 | 6 | +6 | 14 |
| 4 | Arsenal | 6 | 4 | 1 | 1 | 9 | 5 | +4 | 13 |
Now Aston Villa are on a straight run of 11 wins in the row – a remarkable achievement. But if one looks at this a little closer one can see that Aston Villa have won all these games, the last nine of the 11 games have all been won just by a single goal. And that sort of statistic is of course the sort of stat that a club like Arsenal can work away at. They are winning, and of course a win is a win, but they are only win each time by a goal.
We might compare this with Arsenal’s last 11 games which have included two draws and one defeat – obviously not as good as Villa, although we might note that Arsenal are playing the Champions League and Villa are in the Europa league. Thus we have for example an Arsenal game against Bayern Munchen while Villa have been playing Basel and Berne and the like.
Taken on straight results Villa are indeed doing better than Arsenal but it is undoubtedly true that Arsenal have had some tougher fixtures. And Arsenal have included a number of wins of late by more than one goal such as for example the 4-1 win over Tottenham Hots, the 0-3 away win over Club Brugge
So although the momentum is with Villa there is the point to be noted that they are winning games by just one goal, and that tactic is always one that can be questioned on the pitch, for the moment an opposition goal goes in Villa have to change tactics.
Much will depend on what trophy Villa think they stand the best chance of winning – in the league cup they went out to Brentford in the first round they played in. In the Europa they have been doing well, but have lost to Go Ahead Eagles. In the Premier League they did not win a single one of their opening five games.
This latter point suggests that Villa performed a tactical switch after those five games, and that is interesting since tactical twists and turns seem to be very much up Arsenal’s street at the moment. And in this regard the return of the defense after injury is certainly a boost to be welcomed.
And this brings us on to injuries which is an area where Villa are starting to have problems with each of these players now being ruled out according to Premier Injuries: Ross Barkley, Evann Vidjannagni, Guessand, Pau Torres, Matty Cash, and Boubacar Kamara.
Now of course we always know that some of these players may actually be injured on the list but not actually injured on the day, so that the Arsenal coaches don’t know who will be in the team until they get off the bus, but it is quite a list of players missing and it is possible that Arsenal may well be able to exploit some issues there.
