Prediction & odds for the game: Aston Villa (8/5) v Arsenal (13/8) – ST is backing the draw

When: Saturday, 6th February @ 12.30pm K.O

Where: Villa Park

Aston Villa and Arsenal will both attempt to get back on the winning trail in the Premier League when they meet at Villa Park on Saturday.

Aston Villa

Aston Villa may have had a few bumps in the road in recent weeks but it’s important to remember that they’re coming off the back of a season in which they were very nearly relegated back down to the Championship. They’re still in a rebuilding phase of sorts in the second city with the end goal, seemingly, being for them to establish themselves as legitimate European contenders on a year by year basis.

Between Villa’s youngsters losing to Liverpool in the FA Cup and their senior squad being beaten 2-0 by Manchester City, we’ve never seen two defeats that introduced so much hope into a team. They have, unfortunately, since gone onto lose games against West Ham and Burnley, but wins over Southampton and Newcastle in the last few weeks have been reassuring.

Arsenal

The Mikel Arteta experiment was always going to be tricky to navigate, but it’s important for fans to remember that this is going to be a process. The Spaniard hasn’t had a whole lot of time to get the sort of squad together that he needs to succeed and because of that, there are going to be mistakes along the way. Heading into the summer transfer window, you can bet all eyes will be on the Gunners regardless of what they do for the rest of the current campaign.

Supporters probably shouldn’t have expected Arsenal to maintain their strong run of form heading into the new year, if only because their squad doesn’t really feel fully complete yet. In the last few weeks they’ve drawn with Crystal Palace and Manchester United, beat Newcastle and Southampton, and been beaten by Wolves and Southampton – with the Saints games being spread across the Premier League and FA Cup.

Conclusion

Both teams will probably be quite hesitant to pull the trigger after a few uncertain results and because of that, we don’t think this game is going to be quite as frantic as many hope it’ll be. Arsenal should be able to dictate the pace of the play whereas Villa seem to be more capable of taking their time, remaining calm and striking when they spot a gap at the back. Therefore, we’re going to suggest this one will end up being a draw, which isn’t a result either team will really enjoy.

Our official scoreline prediction is going to be 1-1, meaning we stick to the under 2.5 goals bracket.

Verdict: Back the draw at odds of 5/2 and the under 2.5 goals scored at odds of 6/5 (All odds are taken from bet365).

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If you want to bet on Aston Villa vs Arsenal then head on over to the betting page. Alternatively, you can check out some of the other available fixtures at the soccer predictions page as this season’s Premier League drama continues.