Aston Villa vs Arsenal: Betting preview, tips, injury news & prediction

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Arsenal head to Villa Park to take on Aston Villa tonight knowing only a win will keep alive our hopes of finishing in the top seven of the Premier League this season.

Our surprise 2-1 win over champions Liverpool last week kept us in the hunt for Europa League qualification but with Tottenham winning at the weekend and Wolves beating Crystal Palace on Monday night it means Arsenal have to respond this evening by winning our game in hand.

We currently sit 10th in the table but a win over Villa tonight would move Arsenal up to eighth and to within two points of Spurs and three behind sixth-placed Wolves heading into the final weekend of the season.

Sixth or seventh would be enough to secure qualification to the Europa League so it’s vital Arsenal come away with all three points tonight or we’ll have to beat Chelsea in the FA Cup final to ensure we’ll be playing European football next season.

Saturday’s stunning 2-0 win over Manchester City at Wembley booked our place in the FA Cup final but Mikel Arteta won’t want to rely on beating Chelsea to secure a Europa League place so the boss will be desperate to beat relegation threatened Villa tonight.

Betting odds & tips

Arsenal are the even money favourites with the bookmakers to win this evening. The draw can be backed at 29/10 while you can get odds of 5/2 if you think Aston Villa will pull-off a shock on home soil.

The Gunners appear to have turned a corner under Arteta and I fancy us to win tonight. A 2-1 win can be backed at 7/1 but I actually like the look of 3-1 which is available at odds of 12/1.

Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang continued his superb form with another two goals at the weekend and I think he’ll open the scoring tonight at odds of 11/4. If we combine that with a 3-1 Arsenal win, we get very tempting odds of 30/1.

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Team news

Arsenal still have plenty of injury concerns to worry about and Shkodran Mustafi has been ruled out of the game after picking up a hamstring injury at the weekend. Rob Holding is expected to be recalled in defence.

Gabriel Martinelli, Calum Chambers, Bernd Leno and Pablo Mari are all long-term absentees while Mesut Ozil and Matteo Guendouzi aren’t expected to be recalled after being frozen out by Arteta.

However, Cedric Soares is available again after being cup-tied at the weekend and Eddie Nketiah is back in contention after serving his three-match suspension.

Villa will be without the services of Wesley, Thomas Heaton, Bjorn Engels and Neil Taylor due to injury but Kortney Hause has been passed fit after recovering from an abdominal problem.

Prediction

The Villains have endured a tough campaign and defeat tonight would virtually guarantee they’ll be relegated to the Championship so you’d expect them to be fighting for their lives. However, Arsenal have beaten arguably the two best teams in Europe over the past week so they should be in confident mood heading to Villa Park.

I do expect a tough game and Villa should come flying out of the blocks but as long as we defend resolutely like we did against Liverpool and City, we should have enough fire-power to win. I’m backing Arsenal to run out 3-1 winners.

Aston Villa 1-3 Arsenal

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