Aston Villa vs. Arsenal Betting Tips: Back The Gunners to fire at Villa Park

Arsenal bid to bounce back from their defeat to title rivals Man City when they travel to the Midlands to take on former manager Unai Emery and his Aston Villa side on Saturday lunchtime, live on BT Sport at 12.30pm.

Scott Thornton has this one covered with his betting preview and tips.

Arsenal are looking to get their title challenge back on track in Saturday’s early match. The Gunners are without a win in their last three league games and they were knocked off the top by Manchester City in their last match.

Mikel Arteta’s side were the pace setters in the first half of the season. They earned 50 points in their opening 19 matches and many were wondering just how they could be caught.

They have wobbled in recent fixtures but a drop-off was inevitable at some stage. Their performance levels have dipped but they were on the wrong end of a poor refereeing decision against Brentford.

The league is still very much in their hands. They have a game-in-hand to go above Manchester City and have been the most consistent performers this season. They will want to return to winning ways here to avoid confidence dipping and their season heading on a downward spiral.

Aston Villa have been solid if unspectacular since Unai Emery took charge. The experienced manager took over from Steve Gerrard earlier in the season and has brought the team up to 11th in the league. 

Aston Villa have lost their last two league matches; conceding seven goals in the process. They will need to sure up defensively if they are to get anything out of this one.  

Since Emery took charge, Villa are averaging 1.67 goals per game in the league. This is only marginally more than their opponents over this period, who are averaging 1.56.

Surprisingly, their record is worse at home under the new gaffer. They are conceding an average of two goals per game in their last five league matches at Villa Park (the ones Emery has been in charge of). Villa themselves are averaging just 1.8 goals at home over this period. 

Villa have won just five of their 11 home matches in the league this season and just two of the five they have played since Gerrard left the club.

The team have also only kept two clean sheets at home. These were in a shock 4-0 win over Brentford and in a 1-0 win over Southampton; the team who are currently last in the Premier League.

Arsenal’s defeat against Everton was the first time they had failed to score on the road this season.

They are averaging 1.82 goals per game away from the Emirates and they should have success going forward against a Villa side that have looked defensively frail in recent weeks.

Prior to their recent three game blip, the Gunners were averaging 2.37 goals per game.

For our longer odds bet we are going to take Arsenal to be winning at half time and full time.

A fast start would do the Gunners a world of good here. They played extremely well against Manchester City despite losing 3-1 and Arteta will be reminding them of their quality coming into this one.

Arsenal had 64% possession, the most anyone has managed, against Pep Guardiola’s side. They also had 10 attempts on goal.

If Arsenal are as menacing against Aston Villa then they should be able to score a couple of goals.

The four goals that Villa conceded against Leicester in their last game at this ground will be a real concern. This bet landed in that game and the Gunners have more quality than the Foxes.