Aston Villa v Arsenal Pre-Match Thread

[The Situation]

Lawro's a dick.

I'd like to see Houllier maybe go with the formation of players Pete has used. Got to play Pires, Ireland's too inconsistent atm and we need someone who is already proven (not saying Ireland isn't proven, just think it's taking him a long time to adjust) to just slot in that hole and pick out nice passes for our attackers.

We need to win this for two reasons 1) we need to get out that bottom half 2) we need a nice win to take lots of momentum into beating blose.

Quite a rarity for Arsenal to lose 3 games in a row... hopefully that rare time occurs on Saturday...

[N'ZMAV]

We should go with Delfouneso & Gabby up front. Let's get in their faces, they don't like it up 'em.

[eamonn]

Aston Villa vs. Arsenal (12:45pm GMT)

Referee: Mark Clattenburg

The early kick off sees Arsenal travel to Villa Park a ground the Gunners haven’t won at since 2007.  Gerard Houllier’s men lost 2-0 to Blackburn this weekend but have drawn the last two home games against Arsenal in the league.


Mark Clattenburg takes charge of this fixture for only the second having overseen the 1-1 draw between the two sides at The Emirates in March 2008.  Clattenburg from Tyne and Wear has had a good season thus far refereeing eleven Premier League matches including some high quality games like Tottenham against Villa and Manchester City vs. Arsenal but he, like many other referees has had his fair share of controversy and criticism none more so than Manchester United’s second goal against Tottenham when he allowed Nani’s goal to stand despite the Portuguese winger handling the ball.

Clattenburg in my opinion is one of the best players of the advantage rule and isn’t afraid to allow play to go on and come back and book players but he, along with Phil Dowd is a very good man manager because he likes to talk to players rather than showing needless yellow cards.

This is why I believe this is a fantastic appointment from Mike Riley because these two teams like to play football so as long as Clatts lets the game flow like he usually does then this has the potential to be a really entertaining game.

Clattenburg has taken charge of one previous Arsenal game and one previous Villa game this season.  He refereed Villa’s 2-1 defeat at Tottenham in early October, a match in which he booked three Villa players.  The Arsenal game he refereed was their 3-0 win at Manchester City where he correctly sent of Dedryck Boyata after only five minutes, and gave a penalty for a foul by Vincent Kompany.

That red card for Boyata was one of two shown by Clattenburg this season, the other was to Birmingham’s Craig Gardener against Wigan, but with no red card in a Villa vs. Arsenal match since Gilles Grimandi was sent off in 2001 so I think this one should go without any major blips for Mark

My Prediction:

Aston Villa 2-2 Arsenal

Yellow Cards: 2, Red Cards: 0, Penalties: 0

Meet the ref

You trying to take nicardinho's thunder?!

[hawkeye]

Arsenal s weakness is central defence, but i doubt GH will risk playing 4-4-2 and get out run in midfield, i hope he plays Downing on the left and Young on the right

[pedro25]

Who would you play in the middle Hawkeye with Hogg a doubt, Clark, Bannan and Ireland?

[PaulTheVillan]

Who would you play in the middle Hawkeye with Hogg a doubt, Clark, Bannan and Ireland?

Depends on the fitness of Collins.

I'd play Clark & Bannan if Collins is fit.

[pedro25]

If Hogg and Collins are missing, does that mean Herd comes in, or Clark with Lowry/Beye/Lichaj at centre half?

[Shrek]

If Collins and Hogg are out, I'd play Bannan, Pires and Herd in midfield.

If they are fit I'd play Clark and Bannan and play 442 gabby and fonz.

[Duncan Shaw]

Every Gooner I know, and I know a few, are shit scared of Carew and say he always plays really well against them, so if he's fit yes please!  I still can't see us winning though.
2-2

[saunders_heroes]

WM reckon Gabby's a doubt for tomorrow due to illness.

[mozza]

Injuries & illness will take their toll on us tomorrow I fear -

Our unbeaten run in league will come to an end -

2-0 away win and precious little to keep us warm

[eamonn]

For fuck sake, how did O'Neill get away with never having more than 3 players injured?

[Archie]

For fuck sake, how did O'Neill get away with never having more than 3 players injured?

Because he didn't do serious training sessions, so the players are consequently not acclimatized to an hard athletic work!

[usav]

For fuck sake, how did O'Neill get away with never having more than 3 players injured?

Because he didn't do serious training sessions, so the players are consequently not acclimatized to an hard athletic work!

Or if you believe the other theories, they played through injuries.

[PaulTheVillan]

Yep, Gabby is now a doubt.

I'd rather have Delfouneso & Ireland in than Carew.

.....Bannan Clark/Hogg
Young Ireland Downing
............Delfouneso