Aston Villa v Arsenal, 7:45pm

DenMan

Aston Villa v Arsenal, 7:45pm




TEAM NEWS

Aston Villa striker Darren Bent remains sidelined with the thigh strain that caused him to miss the defeat by Liverpool last weekend.

Emile Heskey and Chris Herd also miss out and James Collins is struggling with a knee injury, but Gabby Agbonlahor is available after a ban.

Arsenal's Alex Song is suspended for accumulating five bookings.

Defender Johan Djourou misses out after suffering a groin injury against City, so teenager Ignasi Miquel could start.

Possible starting XIs:

Aston Villa: Guzan; Hutton, Dunne, Cuellar, Warnock; Clark, Delph, Petrov; N'Zogbia, Agbonlahor, Bannan.

Arsenal: Szczesny; Koscielny, Mertesacker, Squillaci, Vermaelen; Frimpong, Arteta, Ramsey; Walcott, Van Persie, Gervinho

Big game tonight at Villa Park. Hoping for an Arsenal win to stay hot on the heels of Chelsea and bounce back after the defeat to Man City at the weekend. Villa without Bent again and will be hoping to get back on track after losing to Liverpool.

Helix

if collins is out and we start cuellar instead of him, with gabby up top and albrighton on the right, i think we'll see a different villa performance to the one that's been the norm lately

unfortunately it'll only be temporary because once heskey and collins are fit, they'll undoubtedly be straight back into the team

herd will be missed tonight

Frisbee

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Woj

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Kosc

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Mert

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Verm

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Miquel

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Frimpong---Arteta

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Walcott

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Ramsey

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Gervinho

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RVP

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Would prefer to see Coquelin start over Frimpong but think Frimpong will get the nod. Hopefully Ox gets some gametime too.

Debating with myself now whether or not to risk setting an alarm for 3.45 to watch this coz it's not on tv so there might not be a decent stream...

pandaboy

Frisbee wrote: »

---

Woj

---

Kosc

---

Mert

---

Verm

---

Miquel

---

Frimpong---Arteta

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Walcott

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Ramsey

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Gervinho

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RVP

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Would prefer to see Coquelin start over Frimpong but think Frimpong will get the nod. Hopefully Ox gets some gametime too.

Debating with myself now whether or not to risk setting an alarm for 3.45 to watch this coz it's not on tv so there might not be a decent stream...

The buzzin player on vipbox.tv is great. Usually skysports commentary as well so yu're guaranteed English.

Would prefer Coquelin also. Though I'd like to experiment and throw Benayoun in the AM role ahead of Ramsey. Ramsey has been tremendous this season but the last couple of games have shown his age. I'd like to see more of Benayoun in the starting lineup also, he's been excellent at playing and feeding the ball. Haven't checked injuries so I'm not sure if he's available or not.

Pepe LeFrits

I've a suspicion Coquelin is injured, although if he isn't and Frimpong gets a nod I suspect it's more to do with it being Song who is absent rather than Wenger rating Frimpong over Coquelin - if Arteta was out it'd probably be Coquelin coming in.

Paleface

Pepe LeFrits wrote: »

I've a suspicion Coquelin is injured, although if he isn't and Frimpong gets a nod I suspect it's more to do with it being Song who is absent rather than Wenger rating Frimpong over Coquelin - if Arteta was out it'd probably be Coquelin coming in.

He's not listed among the absentees on the official site:

http://www.arsenal.com/match-menu/3408404/first-team/aston-villa-v-arsenal?tab=preview

Absentees

Arsenal: Santos (ankle), Wilshere (ankle), Gibbs (stomach), Jenkinson (back), Diaby (hamstring), Sagna (ankle), Djourou (groin), Song (suspended).

Aston Villa: Herd (ankle), Bent (thigh), Heskey (Achilles), Collins (doubt - knee).

DenMan

BREAKING TEAM NEWS: Striker Gabriel Agbonlahor returns for Aston Villa against Arsenal, for whom Francis Coquelin plays at full-back.

Corholio

Villa team - Guzan, Hutton, Dunne, Cuellar, Warnock; Petrov, Clark, Ireland, Albrighton, N’Zogbia, Agbonlahor

Subs: Marshall, Delfouneso, Weimann, Bannan, Collins, Delph, Williams.

Good to see Cuellar getting a chance, if only cos Collins is injured. Clark should hopefully add a bit of presence in midfield. Don't have high hopes for tonight though.

Helix

well eck has picked the team i predicted earlier in the thread anyway, let's see if they play the way i predicted too and actually go for it

should line up like

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guzan

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hutton---cuellar----dunne---warnock

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petrov---clark

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albrighton

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ireland

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nzogbia

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agbonlahor

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you know what, aside from given and bent being out, that's probably the strongest, most attacking side we couldve played. though id probably have gone with bannan instead of ireland based purely on form

Helix

well eck has picked the team i predicted earlier in the thread anyway, let's see if they play the way i predicted too and actually go for it

should line up like

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guzan

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hutton---cuellar----dunne---warnock

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petrov---clark

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albrighton

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ireland

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nzogbia

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agbonlahor

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you know what, aside from given and bent being out, that's probably the strongest, most attacking side we couldve played. though id probably have gone with bannan instead of ireland based purely on form

thorbarry

What streams are people gonna be watching this on?

DenMan

thorbarry wrote: »

What streams are people gonna be watching this on?

On this one tonight.

http://www.firstrowsports.tv/

thorbarry

DenMan wrote: »

On this one tonight.

http://www.firstrowsports.tv/

cheers dude

wandatowell

It'll be interesting to see how Ireland plays but as a gooner I'm hoping he doesnt play too well.

It'll be a hard 3 points for either team but I think the Arsenal will win it 2-1.

DenMan

Just want to say this is the first match thread I've created here and am delighted it met with the MOD'S approval.

Almost game time.

COME ON ARSENAL!!!

FearDark

DenMan wrote: »

On this one tonight.

http://www.firstrowsports.tv/

Any other streams? Thats pretty bad.

DenMan

FearDark wrote: »

Any other streams? Thats pretty bad.

Just give it a bit of time. They are always updating themselves and once up and running are fine. A few manual refreshes always does the trick.

It's playing for me now

Have a look at www.lshunter.tv too

Helix

warnock injured, potentially more good news there

move clark to left back and bring on delph if he can't continue - would be nice if he was out for a few games tbh

wandatowell

Thank god for Chesney in goals

DenMan

Great stop. Well done Cezza.

everdead.ie

Looked to me like Dunne got fouled and then free went against him:pac:

Helix

good start from villa, so the arsenal opener shouldnt be too far away

Drexel

Arsenal looking a bit dodge here

thorbarry

If anyone has sopcast, this stream is fantastic quality

sop://broker.sopcast.com:3912/116205

FearDark

DenMan wrote: »

Have a look at www.lshunter.tv too

Much better thanks, perfect quality and its in English

http://www.livescorehunter.ro/streams/1/lshengland6.html

DenMan

Penalty for Arsenal

FearDark

Peno. Great play from walcott.

WP ref, good to see a pen given without the player going down like hes been shot.

Drexel

Good man van Persie! Great penalty. Fortunate tho cause villa have been the better team so far

Helix

Helix wrote: »

good start from villa, so the arsenal opener shouldnt be too far away

like clockwork that

hopefully the heads dont go down, we've been playing quite well

Patser

stupid by Clark. A nothing peno to give away. Defo peno but just stupid

DenMan

FearDark wrote: »

Much better thanks, perfect quality and its in English

http://www.livescorehunter.ro/streams/1/lshengland6.html

Nice one. Mind you the one I'm watching off first row is in English and perfect too.

Van Persie...GET IN!!!

matrim

Definite peno, stupid mistake from Clark. Hopefully we don't drop our heads now

tony1kenobi

It'd be nice if RVP could get another 3 tonight and then get a bit of rest over Christmas.

wandatowell

Silly mistake, he will learn from it though.

TV4 looking angry out there tonight

Drexel

The arsenal defence would wanna wake up. They are lookin very lax. Villa gettin plenty of chances.

Helix

i dont think villa have played better than the first 23 mins all season

dont think there'd be many on mcleish's back if we were to continue this level of performance tbh

why it's taken him a handful of injuries and half the season to realise the problems is beyond me though

the worst thing is that heskey and collins will be straight back in at the weekend

wandatowell

WHAT ARE YOU DOIN' REF??!?!?!?!?

Minstrel27

Getting to the ball in a tackle is now a bookable offence apparently.

Patser

and that's where we miss Bent

L'prof

Minstrel27 wrote: »

Getting to the ball in a tackle is now a bookable offence apparently.

Coquelin???

DenMan

Coquelin already in the book. Will have to be very careful for the rest of the game.

wandatowell

Per Mert would seriously wanna start learning how to benchpress or something. big lanky length of string

Minstrel27

L'prof wrote: »

Coquelin???

Mertesacker

Drexel

No faith in Ramsey in a position like that. He's had a good few chances like that this season and he's missed most of em.

Helix

jonny666 wrote: »

No faith in Ramsey in a position like that. He's had a good few chances like that this season and he's missed most of em.

thatll come with experience, looks like he panicked when he realised the space and time he had and didnt know what to do

L'prof

Minstrel27 wrote: »

Mertesacker

Don't think he got a card in the end.

Drexel

Helix wrote: »

thatll come with experience, looks like he panicked when he realised the space and time he had and didnt know what to do

That's true. Still I'd like to see him convert one or two of the chances he gets. He is gettin the the right positions tho which is great

Minstrel27

I thought he did on my dodgy stream. Oh well

Patser

Arsenal starting to control the game, keeping the ball very well now.

Mind you Ireland had that chance

wandatowell

jonny666 wrote: »

No faith in Ramsey in a position like that. He's had a good few chances like that this season and he's missed most of em.

I guess the positive thing to take is that he's getting into those positions, as somebody said, the finishing will come with experience