Arsenal will be desperate to return to winning ways and although the loss to Manchester City will have hurt them, they know the first 2 goals conceded were purely down to individual errors. Confidence may not be at its highest in the Arsenal squad but they will still turn up here and play in the same way. Aston Villa have scored in every home league match since Emery took over but also conceded in every match, even against Stevenage in the FA Cup.

Both teams have played 22 league matches this season and for both teams 18 of these matches have had at least 2 goals. 8 of Arsenal’s 11 away matches have had at least 2 goals in and they will know they can’t settle for a draw in this match so will push forward to win. Aston Villa matches have been full of goals since Emery took over and Arteta knows his team need to return to winning ways here so I expect a couple of goals in this match, there should be at least 2 goals in this match.

Emery has found his main man up front in Ollie Watkins, the Villa man has found the net in 3 consecutive matches having only scored 4 this season before this 3 game run. Watkins has had shots on target in 5 of the last 6 matches he has played the full 90 and his pace makes him dangerous against the big teams. Since Emery came in, he’s had 2 shots with 1 on target against Manchester United, 4 shots with 3 on target against Liverpool, 4 shots without hitting the target against Spurs and 1 shot with 1 on target in his last match against Manchester City.

Arsenal allow opposition strikers shots on target more often than you would expect, Haaland had 2 in his last match, Toney had 2 on target against them and Calvert-Lewin and Maupay both managed one for Everton against them. The last striker not to have a shot on target against them was Wout Weghorst who has struggled for chances since he came in to Manchester United. Watkins is full of confidence and will be Villa’s main outlet in this match so I think he has a good chance at a shot on target in this match

As Arsenal and Manchester City have such similar styles, we can take a lot of information from the Manchester City vs Aston Villa match. Ilkay Gundogan had 4 shots in the match and his style can be compared in many ways to Martin Odegaard. Odegaard is a creator but out of possession will run in behind and get in the box for pull backs.

Odegaard has averaged 2.69 shots per 90 so far this season and the Arsenal man gets plenty of shots off. Since the league restarted after the league break, Odegaard has had at least 2 shots in 6 of his 8 league matches and is yet to go a match without a single shot. Furthermore he is one of Arsenal’s main free kick takers, he has 5 shots from free kicks this season which is the most of any Arsenal player giving him another avenue from which he could have shots. Odegaard will be key to Arsenal’s attack in this match and I expect him to have at least 2 shots here.

Aston Villa were 3-0 down by half time against Manchester City and were exposed early on for their poor set piece defending. Rodri had 2 headed shots and Ruben Dias also had a shot for Manchester City as they constantly posed a threat from set pieces despite having very few tall players. Arsenal also have a team mainly made up of shorter technical players and rely on Gabriel and Saliba coming up from the back to generate Arsenal’s set piece chances.

Gabriel has scored 2 goals already this season and averages 0.86 shots per 90. Last time out against Aston Villa, Gabriel managed a whopping 4 shots coming from 10 Arsenal corners. Arsenal will get forward and are expected to win plenty of corners in this match so Gabriel will have a lot of chances to go forward. Aston Villa were very poor from set pieces and Gabriel is by far Arsenal’s most dangerous player from set pieces so I am backing him for a shot in this match.