Aston Villa preview: Dig deep

Good morning from London.

It’s Aston Villa today, just three days after a big effort in a North London derby, so this is going to be a tricky game against a decent side. The fact the games come so quickly one after the other means there’s little in the way of team news. It’s just about play, recover, play, recover.

There have been some encouraging snippets about Ben White but today might be too soon, so it’s basically the same group that beat Sp*rs on Sunday, perhaps with a tweak or two here and there to add a bit of freshness. I would be surprised if Gabriel Martinelli didn’t start with Raheem Sterling dropping to the bench, and maybe one of Jorginho or Mikel Merino coming into midfield, but beyond that I can’t really see how or where he changes things.

Arteta says of this fixture:

We know the difficulty of the team that they are, that’s why they’re performing so well. They have an excellent coach, very good players, really good organisation and we are so used to that in the Premier League. It’s not very different every three days so tomorrow we’re going to have to be really good again to win the game.

We know they have some good players, and the Unai Emery factor is part of it as he returns again, but I like the fact that last season’s defeat to Villa still stings. Captain Martin Odegaard says:

It’s another big test for us, but we beat them earlier this season and also we still have that feeling within us from last season when they beat us here. We want to put that right, and show that we have learnt from that. We have to be ready for it and make sure we win it this time.

I think we saw signs in the last couple of games that he’s been getting closer to the level we know he can operate at, so hopefully he can continue that trajectory today. The injury has obviously had an impact, and I don’t think he’s been quite 100% since, but he was good in the FA Cup game in the North London derby, so if today sees him make a solid contribution with an assist (or two) and a goal, it would be very welcome.

By the time we play, Liverpool will have finished their game away at Brentford, and regardless of the result there will be a bit of extra pressure. We’ll either have to win to keep up with them, or win to close the gap if they’ve dropped points. I don’t think it changes the focus too much, but it’s another aspect of today’s proceedings.

Anyway, fingers crossed we can produce the right result. Physically I think we’re going to have to dig deep, so let’s hope we’ve recovered enough from Wednesday to do what needs to be done later this afternoon.

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Elsewhere, Arteta is in good form here talking about transfers and the backing of the fans in the stadium, and elsewhere Tim has an exclusive with Renee Slegers after her appointment as head coach of Arsenal Women was made official. That will also be made available as a podcast a little later this morning.

Right, I’ll leave it there. We will have all the usual coverage for you with the live blog and post-game stuff on Arseblog News. For now, I’m going to get a coffee (and perhaps a painkiller *boilk*), and hopefully see some of you before/during/after the game.

Come on you reds!

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