"Good day everybody wherever you might be and here's hoping you've all recovered from the surreal, stilted, extremely long, unintentionally funny and occasionally downright unpleasant experience that was last night's World Cup draw. Having been tasked with liveblogging that particular fever dream, it's nice to be back in action for something a little more straightforward and less weird an actual football match between the top two teams in the Premier League form table: Aston Villa and Arsenal."
"The top team in the actual Premier League table, Arsenal can increase the gap to their nearest rivals to eight points with a win in today's early kick-off but will have to beat an Aston Villa side who have won eight of their last nine top flight matches to do so. Mikel Arteta's side chalked up a fairly routine 2-0 win against Brentford last time out."
"Under Unai Emery, who endured an unproductive 18-month spell in charge of Arsenal before being replaced by Arteta in 2019, Villa's recovery from a surprisingly sluggish start to the season has been little short of remarkable and a win today would see them leapfrog Manchester City to go second in the table and whisper it possibly start getting mentioned in passing as potential title contenders."
Arsenal sit top of the Premier League and can increase the gap to their nearest rivals to eight points with a win in the early kick-off. Aston Villa have won eight of their last nine top-flight matches and a victory would lift them above Manchester City into second place. Mikel Arteta's side recorded a 2-0 win against Brentford in their previous game. Under Unai Emery, Villa recovered from a sluggish start to produce a remarkable revival. Villa beat Brighton 4-3 midweek with Ollie Watkins scoring twice to end a long barren spell. Kick-off at Villa Park is 12.30pm GMT.
Read at www.theguardian.com
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