Aston Villa vs Arsenal Pre-Match Thread

[rob_bridge]

They defo have a soft underbelly however with Sanchez, Wellbeck and Ozil (on form) they could easily rip us a new one in the first 20 mins.

[Mortimer's Bear]

Sadly, we don't have a cat in hells chance on Saturday.

Really?

[supertom]

We actually played quite well against Arsenal at VP last season, in the second half IIRC. I thought we were unfortunate not to get a point. It was kind of the start of that little mini run that saw us play well against Liverpool then West Brom, before we just turned to utter dog shit for some reason.

If they play Ozil too, he's really struggling to make an impact. I think it's a good time to be playing their side with Ozil in because if you keep on him you basically turn Arsenal into a 10 man side. Defensively they're not fantastic either.

Play deep again and the onus is on Arsenal to break us down and they'll be susceptible on the counter. They tend to overplay a lot of the time, and particularly when they're up against a deep defence, they can often struggle to find that killer pass. We just need to be wary of them countering us, and Ramsey's runs from deep.

I think we'll take a point here, before coming unstuck against Chelski.

[Ron Manager]

We have a chance. Keane and Lambert will be giving special attention to their midfield. I expect Sanchez to play from the start and give special attention to his namesake. Our chances of success depend on Ozil not hitting form and Wilshire not getting forward too much. He may be a grade one tosser but that was a very good goal he scored on Saturday.

It is imperitive Agbonlahor keeps his form up to the standard he attained last Saturday and Delph gives them something to worry about.

Either 1-1 or 0-0.

I think even if Vlaar is fit Lambert will go with Baker/Senderos to begin with.

[CJ]

Would love to get a point from this but Arsenal have the ability to tippy tappy through teams rather than relying on going over or around. Think we'll score but they'll score one more. 2-1 to them but another one of the horrible run of games out the way

[Dave Cooper please]

They can tippy-tappy all they want. right up until the time (two minutes in) when Hutton gets bored and takes out three of their midfielders with one tackle.

I've gone draw, but we can win this.

[Chipsticks]

If we can't fill the ground, with a Saturday 3pm kick off, 2nd in the league against Arsenal we never will.

Tickets look like they're selling well, shouldn't have so many of the glaring gaps seen in the last two home games.

[Smirker]

We actually played quite well against Arsenal at VP last season, in the second half IIRC. I thought we were unfortunate not to get a point.

We did, it was a stupid mistake straight after the goal that cost us. I'm sure it was Delph. One of many occasions where we conceded within a minute of conceding.

We can win this.

[BoskoDjembaSalifou]

6-0. Good warm up for the big title decider at Stamford Bridge.

[pauliewalnuts]

If we can't fill the ground, with a Saturday 3pm kick off, 2nd in the league against Arsenal we never will.

Tickets look like they're selling well, shouldn't have so many of the glaring gaps seen in the last two home games.

The issue we are going to have this season is that season ticket sales have clearly taken a massive drop.

I don't know how easy it is going to be persuading those who opted not to renew over the summer to attend matches on a "game by game" basis, but I suspect it won't be a trivial endeavour.

That's one for Mr Fox to sort out, and I hope it is right at the top of his list of stuff to do.

[Ads]

How many season tickets did we sell in the end?

[Chipsticks]

If we can't fill the ground, with a Saturday 3pm kick off, 2nd in the league against Arsenal we never will.

Tickets look like they're selling well, shouldn't have so many of the glaring gaps seen in the last two home games.

The issue we are going to have this season is that season ticket sales have clearly taken a massive drop.

I don't know how easy it is going to be persuading those who opted not to renew over the summer to attend matches on a "game by game" basis, but I suspect it won't be a trivial endeavour.

That's one for Mr Fox to sort out, and I hope it is right at the top of his list of stuff to do.

Agree with you there, I think attendance will still be good when the bigger teams come to town, and all other games will fluctuate between 28-35K depending on how well the team have been playing in the few games beforehand.

On a side note, the club just put this on Facebook "Ticket sales have been strong this week for the Arsenal game on Saturday, with several areas of Villa Park already sold out".

[pauliewalnuts]

On a side note, the club just put this on Facebook "Ticket sales have been strong this week for the Arsenal game on Saturday, with several areas of Villa Park already sold out".

Proof once again that this is the only forum the club pay any attention to

*hoists h&v flag*

[Chipsticks]

On a side note, the club just put this on Facebook "Ticket sales have been strong this week for the Arsenal game on Saturday, with several areas of Villa Park already sold out".

Proof once again that this is the only forum the club pay any attention to

*hoists h&v flag*

We definitely need an H&V flag to drape off the upper Holte, maybe a giant orange dot?

[pauliewalnuts]

On a side note, the club just put this on Facebook "Ticket sales have been strong this week for the Arsenal game on Saturday, with several areas of Villa Park already sold out".

Proof once again that this is the only forum the club pay any attention to

*hoists h&v flag*

We definitely need an H&V flag to drape off the upper Holte, maybe a giant orange dot?

We'd never be able to agree on what would go on the flag.