Aston Villa v Arsenal Pre-Match Thread

[silhillvilla]

Heavy Rain and 100mph winds forecast for tomorrow. Should make it interesting.

[WALTERS WARRIORS]

I just want a win. Any win. I know we have one week of obvious progress (Man utd game) then a week of misery (Man City game) but we must now combine this experience together and battle like it is a cup final to start getting some points on the board. 1-0 Vlaar ........

[silhillvilla]

We need a win as QPR will be a much harder game now

[PaulMcGrathsNo5Shirt]

I think we'll win 3-0

Benteke hatrick.

[Steve R]

Stuff Lawro, by comparison the Guardian is drooling over us.

There were enough signs in the 3-2 defeat to Manchester United that there is great potential at Villa Park, yet Paul Lambert's Aston Villa still find themselves in the bottom three, having only won twice all season. The worry for Villa fans must be that this young side, who are not without talent, will be too brittle to handle the demands of a relegation battle. However they can hurt Arsenal if they play with the same sort of intensity and energy that so unsettled United two weeks ago. Christian Benteke, the kind of striker Arsenal have not always relished dealing with, will be crucial in that regard. His finishing leaves much to be desired but his strength and speed provides a neat foil to Andreas Weimann's composure.

[russon]

1-3 and a post-match gushathon from proud Villa supporters cos we showed fight

[VancouverLion]

2-1 Bent 56, Benteke 81 don't care for them

UTV!!!

[Matt Collins]

Heavy Rain and 100mph winds forecast for tomorrow. Should make it interesting.

isn't 100mph a hurricane? The weather channel is forecasting 9mph at ko time . .

[Ron Manager]

Its just occurred to me that when our much loved neighbours across the city won the League Cup under our former much loved manager a couple of years ago they based it on Zigic terrorising the Arsenal defence in the air and he did.

Therefore I expect Benteke to win everything in the air knock it down and Bent to dispatch it into the net four times.

Aston Villa 4- Arsenal 1

The weather conditions could be awful. Get your pacamacs on and your prayer mats out!

[Bottom Right 89]

Set pieces is the key - both teams have trouble defending them, Barry Bannan near post corner, Benteke flick on Ron Vlaar steaming in at the holte end 1 nil Villa. Graham Taylor will be purring in the commentary box.

[ktvillan]

We were a bit unlucky to lose last season despite them having Van Persie and us having Hutton on a brain donor night.  So I'm hoping for a sneaky sneaky 1-0 win, with Weimann to sneakily sneak one in by sneaking in at the far post.  We'll be fine as long as we don't concede any corners.

[Archie]

5-0 to us, we get two ludicrous penalty awards but miss both.

Wenger gets 12 match touchline ban for shouting 'wanqeur' at the ref.

Legend!

[Matt Collins]

We never beat Arsenal at home, but we do get a good draw fairly often. For some reason I'm at least mildly optimistic. Walcott being out is very good news.

I reckon it may be the same side again, with a question on left back. But he could revert to the 'hussle them' diamond formation, bring Bent and Holman in for Weimann and Gabby

But I reckon it'll be the same side. Then 2-3 changes for the mid week game

[ozzjim]

2-2 Weather seems calm and cold at the moment...

[OzVilla]

0-2 to the Arse. 

Based on the fact that they've always had a good record at VP and we're not very good.