Sunday Premier League action features a matchup between Aston Villa and Arsenal. Arsenal is looking to break out of the huge pack of teams between 4th and 12th on the Premiership table all with 7 or 8 points. Aston Villa, meanwhile, is looking to pull themselves up out of the relegation zone. Of course at this early juncture of the season there are just a handful of points between the ‘haves’ and ‘have nots’ of English soccer.
Arsenal is currently in eighth place in the Premier League with 8 points scoring and conceding eight goals. At least this is all easy to remember with the ‘8’s are wild’. Arsenal has been up and down this season–they followed up a lackluster draw at bottom feeding Watford in which they blew a two goal lead with their most inspired performance of the season as they thrashed Eintracht Frankfurt 3-0 on the road in Europa League play.
They return to Emirates Stadium where they have a 1-1-0 record scoring 4 and conceding three. Even with the impressive effort in Germany, the Gunners are winless in Premier League play since their opening day 2-1 win over Burnley. Aston Villa is coming off of a scoreless draw with West Ham United who spent most of the game down a man on Monday night. Villa is 0-0-2 away scoring just one goal and giving up 4. They’ve lost 3 of the last 4 away with the only victory coming against a League Two side.