Overview
Aston Villa and Arsenal entered the second round with completely opposite mindsets. Arsenal started the season with a 3-0 victory over Coventry, while Villa suffered a 0-4 defeat to Brighton and temporarily ranked last.
Villa's defeat is even more worrying as they lost Joao Gomes due to a red card right before halftime. Notably, Villa's starting lineup has weakened significantly compared to the Europa League final just 3 months ago.
6 players who used to start in the final, including Ollie Watkins, Morgan Rogers, Youri Tielemans, Lucas Digne, Ezri Konsa and Emiliano Martinez, are all absent against Brighton because they have left the team or are preparing to leave. This is almost the entire backbone of the team.
This situation partly explains the slow start of the Unai Emery army. Villa did not score in 5/6 of the most recent Premier League matches in August, including 4 consecutive matches. When he was coaching Arsenal, Emery also lost 8/16 matches in August, his highest failure rate in a month.
However, Arsenal should not be subjective when traveling to Villa Park. Villa often plays well against top teams at home and has defeated the reigning Premier League champions for three consecutive seasons: Manchester City in the 2023-2024 and 2024-2025 seasons, before overcoming Liverpool in the 2025-2026 season. Last season, they also defeated Arsenal at Villa Park.
With Arsenal, this confrontation marks Mikel Arteta's 250th Premier League match. He became the 10th coach in the history of the league to lead a team to reach this milestone.
Arsenal is still maintaining positive form despite Jurrien Timber and William Saliba being injured. Martin Odegaard shows signs of returning to his best form, Kai Havertz is completely healthy, while Bukayo Saka and Declan Rice show no signs of overload. Newcomers are also adding depth to the squad.
Villa is clearly underestimated, but home advantage and the requirement to react strongly after the heavy defeat to Brighton may help them create a difficult match for Arsenal.
Head-to-head record
Head-to-head record at Villa Park is bringing mixed signals. Aston Villa has won 4 of their last 7 Premier League games against Arsenal since 2019, more than their number of wins in the previous 24 encounters.
However, Arsenal still has a very impressive away record against Villa when they have won 15 Premier League matches at Villa Park, more than any other stadium in the league.
Villa also has a big foothold when winning all 3 recent home matches against the reigning Premier League champions. This is an achievement equal to their total victories in the previous 28 matches.
Score prediction: Aston Villa 0-2 Arsenal
The match between Aston Villa and Arsenal takes place at 2:00 AM on September 1st (Vietnam time).
