Aston Villa will be looking to build on their biggest win of the season and continue their climb up the table when they visit league leaders Arsenal on Saturday. Leon Bailey and 74th-minute strike gave Villa (10-3-2, 32 points) a deserved three points in a 1-0 home win over defending champions Manchester City on Wednesday, moving Villa (10-3-2, 32 points). ) over City into a third.
a table And while manager Unai Emery’s side may not have stood out as legitimate title contenders at the start of the season, their status is well-earned.
Six of Villa and seven home league wins have come by multiple goals and their 34 goals are tied for second most in the Premier League.
With eight goals and six assists, Ollie Watkins is halfway to his Premier League career high of 15 goals and two-thirds of the way to a career-best 21 goals.
Emery, who had unsuccessful spells at Arsenal in 2018 and 2019, is adamant that Wednesday’s victory should not be the highlight of Villa and season but another step in the club’s ongoing rebuilding. It is my challenge every day to be better today than yesterday and tomorrow better than today, he demanded on Friday.
I won’t stop. You must also try to maintain a balance. We played very well against Manchester City, but I want to try to take a few steps forward, as we do, but we think we have to be at this level, we have to want to be at this level.
Arsenal (15-1-3, 36 points) enter the weekend on the back of a resounding 4-3 win over newly promoted Luton Town, who were difficult to beat at home despite their lowly position. Declan Rice and the winner in the seventh minute of second-half stoppage time gave the Gunners a dramatic victory after both teams took turns holding the lead in the first hour.
Although it was far from Arsenal land’s best performance of the season, it was a sixth straight win in all competitions in difficult circumstances and a turnaround attempt for his club manager Mikel Arteta and a possible title race after last year and last year.
second place A team has to have an incredible desire to win every game and I think we have that and we’ve shown that time and time again, Arteta said. We were able to score before, there were moments where we could have and could have done better to achieve a third or fourth goal, but if it is not the case, the team has the resources and the right skills. now to win it you have to believe and do what the game demands at that moment.