The New Year’s Eve fireworks will come early for us in 2025 as we wrap up the year with a blockbuster match against red-hot Aston Villa on Tuesday (8.15pm UK).
24 days after the Villans bagged a 95th-minute winner to beat us in Birmingham to end our 18-match unbeaten run, we have the chance to do the same to Unai Emery’s impressive outfit, as the Claret and Blues head to Emirates Stadium on the back of a club record 11 successive wins in all competitions.
Sitting in third spot, Villa are also unbeaten in their last two visits to N5 and could move level on points with us at the summit with a win. However, while revenge may be on some of our squad’s minds, the opportunity to start 2026 on top of the Premier League and pull away from a title rival in the process should be all the motivation we need, as we seek to finish the festive fixtures with four wins from four.
Villa’s victory roll
Without doubt, Villa have been the most in-form team in the division over the past few months. Having failed to win any of their first five league games, they have since won 13 out of 14 to soar to within touching distance of the top of the table, smashing club records in the process.
Since beating us in dramatic circumstances on December 6, they have gone on to defeat West Ham United 3-2 before recording 2-1 triumphs against Manchester United and Chelsea, where they came from behind to win at Stamford Bridge on Saturday thanks to a brace from our nemesis, Ollie Watkins.
In that time, they also secured a 2-1 win at Basel to record a fifth win from six in the Europa League, leaving them third in the table. However their last eight victories have all been by a single goal, with just one clean sheet registered in those successes.
What the managers say
Arteta: “We have a really tough match. We know their level, what they are doing, but it’s a beautiful game as well to prepare and play. [Villa] merit to be there. Look at what they are doing and how consistent they’ve been, and what Unai has done with the club.
“I think they fully deserve that credit because they are doing it on the pitch where you have to show your level. We’ll watch [the previous meeting] back. I have a few ideas and things that we have to do better. It was quite cruel as well, the way we lost it, but we’ll learn from it.”
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Emery: ‘To speak about the title now, in December, it does not make sense. We are motivated and excited but for the moment we are motivated for the match we play tomorrow. With three points difference between them and us, this is our motivation.
“We must be proud of everything we’re doing but we must be humble and confident and we must be ambitious as well. [Arsenal] are playing fantastic, being so strong in everything. They are getting better and better. For them it is very important because three weeks ago we beat them and they will usually want to show their power against us. This is the next step forward. Our test is how we can face them with our structure.”
Team news
Riccardo Calafiori was injured in the warm-up against Brighton & Hove Albion on Saturday, and is a doubt, while Jurrien Timber also missed that victory with a knock, and it remains to be seen if the Dutchman can feature.
We were boosted by the returns of Piero Hincapie and Gabriel to help boost a depleted backline that is still without Cristhian Mosquera (ankle) and Ben White (hamstring), while Max Dowman (ankle) is also unavailable. Kai Havertz continues to train as he edges closer to a return from his knee injury sustained in August.
Villa will be without Matty Cash and Boubacar Kamara who are both suspended after picking up their fifth cautions of the campaign against Chelsea, while Pau Torres has missed all three league games since we last met with a calf issue.
Evann Guessand is at the Africa Cup of Nations, while Harvey Elliott has been ill of late. Tyrone Mings remains on the sidelines with a hamstring injury, and Ross Barkley misses out with a knee problem.
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Talking tactics
Adrian Clarke, writing in the official matchday programme: In recent weeks, Emery has favoured a deliberately narrow 4-2-3-1, with ‘wingers’ John McGinn and Morgan Rogers regularly seen infield, providing solidity down the spine of the pitch
Earlier this month at Villa Park, they did a great job of pouncing on loose passes to launch fast breaks. Knowing how we like to push our full-backs forward, they raided us with effective long passes aimed down the flanks when possession changed hands, aiming to create situations where Watkins or Rogers could stride into space to hurt us in 2v2s.
Most of their best moments three weeks ago stemmed from situations where they won the ball back inside a crowded middle third. Looking after the ball securely in that part of the pitch, without leaving ourselves short on numbers at the back, will be important.
Villa are into double figures for goals from long distance, helped by Rogers who has scored more from outside the box than any other top-flight player this season, but chance creation is an issue as 11 clubs have registered more big chances, while the Villans rank 14th for expected goals. At the other end of the pitch meanwhile, only five Premier League sides have faced more shots than Villa this season.
Facts and stats
We have lost three of our last five matches against Aston Villa, and could see Villa complete a league double over us for the third time in six seasons (also 2020/21 and 2023/24), something they’d done so just once previously in the competition beforehand, in 1992/93.
This is the third time we have faced an opponent twice in the same month in the Premier League, previously beating Wolves twice in February 2022, and Bolton twice in January 2010.
We have won our final league game in four of the last five calendar years, with the exception being a 2-1 defeat at Fulham on New Year’s Eve 2023. Villa meanwhile have won their final league game in just two of the last 13.
This will be Unai Emery’s third away Premier League match at Emirates Stadium since leaving us, winning one and drawing one. No former Gunners boss has ever gone three away league games in a row without losing after leaving the club.
Ebere Eze has scored in his team’s final Premier League match of the calendar year in each of the last three years, all for Crystal Palace. The only players to achieve this in four years in a row are Dimitar Berbatov (5 from 2007 to 2011) and Harry Kane (2016 to 2019).
Eze has been involved in five goals in four home Premier League starts against Villa (2 goals, 3 assists), registering at least one assist in three of those four starts.
Leandro Trossard has either scored (2) or assisted (2) four of our last five Premier League goals against the Villans.
In five Premier League appearances at Emirates Stadium, Ollie Watkins has had four shots on target, scoring all of them. Only Son Heung-Min (8) has scored more league goals against Mikel Arteta’s teams than Watkins (6).
Match officials
Darren England makes his second visit to Emirates Stadium this season, having overseen our 3-0 win against Nottingham Forest back in September. We have lost just once in seven matches under his watch.
It’ll be just the second time he has refereed a Villa match in the past two seasons, with his last appointment coming in October 2024 in a 3-1 win at Fulham, when he sent off Joachim Anderson but gave the Cottagers a penalty. However in 11 top-flight games this term, the Doncaster-based official has awarded just two spot-kicks and red-carded one player – and that was West Ham United’s Lucas Paqueta for dissent.
Referee: Darren England
Assistants: Scott Ledger, Akil Howson
Fourth official: Tom Kirk
VAR: Jarred Gillett
Assistant VAR: Tim Robinson
Recent Villa visits
Villa are unbeaten in their last two away league games against us, and last had a longer run without defeat at Emirates Stadium between 2006/07 and 2008/09. Last term, goals from Gabriel Martinelli and Kai Havertz seemingly put us in firm control, only for Youri Tielemans and Watkins to strike and salvage a 2-2 draw.
Villa again put a huge dent in our title aspirations in April 2024 as they ran out 2-0 victors, with Leon Bailey and Watkins again netting to seal only a third Premier League double at our expense.
The campaign before, we won 2-1 in August 2022 when Gabriel Jesus opened the scoring before Douglas Luiz equalised straight from a corner. However the Brazilian magic continued when Martinelli fired in on 77 minutes to claim victory.
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Live coverage
Tune into Live From N5 an hour before kick-off for all the best pre-match build-up!
You can also listen to live commentary from kick-off from Dan Roebuck and Adrian Clarke.
Find out which broadcasters are also showing the action live on TV, wherever you are in the world.
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