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2022/23 English Premier League
Matchday 5
Arsenal v Aston Villa
Emirates Stadium
London, England
Wednesday, 31 August 2022
Kick-off is at 19h30
Arsenal will attempt to maintain their winning start to the new
Premier League season when Aston Villa arrive at the Emirates Stadium on Wednesday, August 31.
The Gunners are the only team in the top flight with a 100 per cent record after four rounds and they lead the chasing pack by two points.
Mikel Arteta's side made it four wins from four when they came from behind to beat neighbours Fulham 2-1 on Saturday, with Martin Odegaard (64') cancelling out Aleksandar Mitrovic's 56th-minute opener before Gabriel (86') completed the comeback.
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Arteta was able to celebrate his 100th game as manager with a victory and he was pleased to get a reaction from his players after Gabriel's mistake allowed Mitrovic to open the scoring for the Cottagers.
"It's a big boost - and obviously to win like this as well," the Spaniard told Sky Sports. "It's really nice when you feel that adversity during the match after being in control of the match and being on top of it and hoping it was just a matter of time.
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"We made a big mistake and they punished us, but how we reacted against adversity, the connection again with the supporters, the atmosphere that we created, the way we went about it, the mentality that we showed, the way Gabi played after he made that mistake and the way that the team believed we could win the match.
"We went for it and we managed to do it. Overall, I'm really pleased with the performance."
The Villans have picked up just three points from their opening four matches, which came on matchday 2 when they claimed a 2-1 win over Everton.
The other three have all ended in defeat, the latest of which was at the hands of West Ham on Sunday when Pablo Fornals' deflected goal proved the difference at Villa Park.
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Villa head coach Steven Gerrard has demanded a response from his players after back-to-back losses, although he felt there were some positives to take from their performance against the Hammers.
"I'm very disappointed with the outcome of the game," Gerrard said. "We haven't got enough points on the board. I certainly share our fans' frustration and our players' frustration.
"We need to act and we need to act quickly. We need to not feel sorry for ourselves and we need to put it right as quick as we can.
"We haven't done a lot wrong today. We could have been a bit more imaginative or creative in the final third but in terms of how the game looked, Emi's been relatively quiet."
Head-to-Head (Last Five Premier League Meetings)
Matches - 5
Arsenal - 2
Aston Villa - 3
Draws - 0
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