- Aston Villa v Arsenal: Villa tackle, foul and get carded more and Smith Rowe’s amazing figures.
- Aston Villa v Arsenal: ranting, and the form of the two clubs.
Our two previous articles, in their own ways, show that far from being in difficulty and in desperate need of a new striker, Arsenal are doing very well, and are now operating at the level of a top-four club with good goalscoring of late and a solid defensive record.
Indeed in the first of the two articles above (“Villa tackle, foul and get carded…” we can see that we have a player who is performing at the highest level of goal scoring when he is included in the team.
Better still, we are seeing that Arsenal’s away record is better than Villa’s home record, which bodes well for the match.
The BBC are predicting an Arsenal defeat by 2-1 – something they generally do whenever there is the slightest chance of an upset, clinging on to the notion that “Aston Villa have won their last two top-flight home games against Arsenal 1-0. It is their longest winning run against the Gunners at Villa Park since a four-match sequence between 1975 and 1979.”
Now, I don’t know about you, but calling two wins a club’s “longest winning run” suggests that the club being described (Aston Villa in this case) isn’t up to much. Especially when we come to the next factoid on their list: “Arsenal have won 12 Premier League away matches versus Villa – the only side they have a better record against is West Ham (13 victories).”
Indeed Aston Villa has only won 11 games against Arsenal in the Premier League all told (against Arsenal’s 12 away wins), so I am not sure history is on Aston Villa’s side. To make the outlook worse for Villa.
But there is a note of warning. Villa have failed to score in only one of their 13 home league games in 2021/22 – and that was in a defeat to, of all teams, Watford.
Now one interesting Arsenal fact is that the club has not won five consecutive away fixtures since 2015. Here’s how it happened…. and I’ve included the non-League result as well because we won those too!
| Date | Match | Res | Score | Competition |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 21 Feb 2015 | Crystal Palace v Arsenal | W | 1-2 | Premier League |
| 4 Mar 2015 | QPR v Arsenal | W | 1-2 | Premier League |
| 9 Mar 2015 | Manchester U v Arsenal | W | 1-2 | FA Cup |
| 17 Mar 2015 | AS Monaco v Arsenal | W | 0-2 | Champions League |
| 21 Mar 2015 | Newcastle U v Arsenal | W | 1-2 | Premier League |
| 11 Apr 2015 | Burnley v Arsenal | W | 0-1 | Premier League |
| 4 May 2015 | Hull City v Arsenal | W | 1-3 | Premier League |
Anyway, back with the BBC and their snippets, they also tell us that “Arsenal are one short of becoming the third club to score 2,000 Premier League goals after Manchester United (2,176) and Liverpool (2,002).”
However never being a website to bring confidence and good cheer to Arsenal they also tell us that “Mikel Arteta has lost three Premier League matches as a manager versus Aston Villa – the only teams he has a worse record against are Liverpool (four defeats) and Manchester City (five).”
Moving on again, here is a fascinating little snippet. The average time at which Arsenal score their first goal in an away game is 18 minutes. The average time that they concede their first away goal is on 40 minutes. The average time the opposition score their first goal is 42 minutes.
So if we can get their early goal, and then in the last ten minutes of the first half, pull all eleven players back into defence we might see this one out.
And as a final point for today, here are their home games against the “big six”
| Date | Match | Res | Score | Competition |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 Dec 2021 | Aston Villa v Manchester City | L | 1-2 | Premier League |
| 26 Dec 2021 | Aston Villa v Chelsea | L | 1-3 | Premier League |
| 15 Jan 2022 | Aston Villa v Manchester Utd | D | 2-2 | Premier League |
We don’t really want to give them their first win do we?
Off topic but halftime at Borehamwood with ourWomen one goal up against Coventry who have been defending for their lives. Blackstenius heading home a Parris cross. Coventry have hardly been in our half. More goals to come in the second half I’m sure.
Sterner test to come in the semi final.
Arsenal Women safely through to the FA Cup seni final following a convincing and workmanlike 4-0 win against second tier Coventry City
A first half goal by Blackstenius was followed by goals from Beth Mead, Nikita Parris and Viviana Miedema.
The Women’s match was refereed by a Man. City midfielder.
Seismic,
whoever it was had a good game, missed nothing serious as far as I could see. 5 fouls against each team and none serious enough for a card
I think Wolves were hard done by in their match v Leeds. Questionable 2nd yellow to Raul.
Just reading the sycophantic article on the BBC website about how Liverpool could become the first English football team to do the quadruple as it’s never been done before.
Try telling Arsenal Ladies that!
@GGG -I agree. It made the difference in attitude.
Andrew, It was Abigail Byrne, the ball-playing ref.