Arsenal – Villa; Minimal expectations.

What’s the saying?
Expect the worst and anything else is a bonus.
That about sums it up for me, as I can’t muster any confidence whatsoever for this game.
I’m very tempted to predict a four or even five goal defeat, but just as I’ve invariably been wrong over the last few months so I think I’d be wrong in expecting that sort of loss.
I’m not predicting, but just as Tottenham took a tonking which I don’t think many expected yesterday, so it proves that anything can happen.

That said, Arsenal have a tremendous defensive record, so it’s difficult to see how we’re going to put many past them, but the same can’t be said for our back line recently, as we’ve been shocking for a good while now. Lille created plenty of chances midweek and it was only Martinez’ sterling efforts between the sticks that prevented them getting a victory.
I just don’t see the same happening today.

Talking of the defence, squad news is that Longlet and Cash have both trained and will be reviewed before the game. How much do we need those two back? I’ll bet someone at the club is kicking themselves that we never got another right back in when we had the chance. Just as many of us foresaw, that proved to be one of the worst team decisions I can ever remember at the Villa.
As for the rest of the squad, the usual suspects are out and even worse, Douglas Luiz serves the first match of his two game suspension.

Arsenal only have Jurrien Timber out. Lucky them and I’m not quite sure what that says about our training, but I’m sure something isn’t right. Us fans have had concerns about the intensity of our training for a good while, yet it still seems to be an ongoing problem.

Whatever, I think things are quite easily summed up here and it’s pretty daunting.
Arsenal have won eleven of their last twelve games and they’ve scored at least two goals in every one of those wins. To encourage us even more (!), they’ve only conceded four goals in those eleven victories.
That’s worrying.
Hence my low expectations.
The only question really, is will Unai decide this is a dead loss and rest at least some of the players?
I strongly expect the answer to that is “not a chance”.
I just don’t think that’s how he rolls and any player not starting will be because of fitness issues or niggles, in my opinion.

So fingers crossed, it’s not too bad a result/display and UTV!