Happy match day folks – how we all feeling?

There’s obviously some transfer stuff going on with Fabio Vieira back to Porto on loan, as well as Mikel Merino spotted on his way to London, but on match day there really is only ever one focus and that’s how we’re going to come back from the Midlands with three points following our challenging game against Villa this evening.

Last weekend was Wolves and I think I was 90% excitement and about 10% nerves. We were at home, Wolves are an okayish team, but one that I think nearly all of us were pretty confident that we should beat, plus the sun was out and it all felt like a bit of a party atmosphere pre game as I reconnected with mates and we sank a few beers.

Today is a very different vibe for me. I’m fortunate enough to be in Portugal in the Algarve again, so I’ll be watching it from the comfort of the parents’ lounge, but even the lovely weather, fabulous surroundings and great food/beer won’t be able to dull the sense of nervousness I have about this game.

Villa are a good team. They did us twice last season and on both occasions we got sucker-punched. This fixture last season was Villa flying out of the traps, scoring within the first few goals and then sitting back and defending. The game at our gaff was us dominating ball, possession, chances, then them using their wide forwards and rapid counter-attack to catch us cold. It was a bit of a ‘rope-a-dope’ and we fell for it. Today we can’t let that be the same.

I suspect Villa and their fans will want the same as last season and see them fly at us early and unsettle us, so the opening exchanges of this game might well be about containment for us. But we have to be better with our decision making. My brother is a West Ham fan and last week I watched their game against the Hammers with him – West Ham created chances and at the death Villa really rode their luck. We can’t let that happen again to us this season and perhaps if you’re going to talk about a slight hangover worry from last weekend, it’s that we probably should have been out of sight against Wolves earlier than the 74th minute when Saka scored the second.

Villa will target us in wide positions and most of the online discourse I’ve read has been around how worried Arsenal fans are about bailey versus Zinchenko. I get it, Zinny has a mistake in hi, we all know that. But he also has other players around him who could – and should – be supporting and covering him should we need it. So that’s why I’m thinking Arteta is going with Kai in left eight, Rice in at six and Partey dropped to the bench. He may well go with the same team as last week and give Rice instructions to be a bit more of a screen than he was against Wolves, but I just have this weird feeling that he’s going to move his chess pieces around – just a little bit.

The rest of the team will pretty much stay as it is and I think we should definitely keep Martinelli in there for his pace. Remember two seasons ago when we won 4-2 late on? Martinelli bagging a goal really late by being there on the counter hit Villa as we got back on to winning ways. That is what we need to have today because I think we can get in behind them and create chances. We may not have scored against them last season, but that wasn’t because of their miserly defence.

Emery didn’t really give any soundbites to latch on to that are worth noting, but we do know that he plays with a high line, a high press and will instruct his team to do so. They will want to transition quickly and so they will look at the likes of Tielemans to do that for them, perhaps also targeting balls out to Basiley to see how he gets on with the space vacated by Zinchenko. This is where we need Gabriel to have a good game in cover I think, but we’ll also need to have Saliba on it up against Watkins for the one-on-one duels. The good news is we know Saliba loves a duel and so does Gabriel, so I have hope that they can do the required match up jobs to keep them both quiet.

This game will be about battles all over the pitch. Saka against Digne and probably McGinn doubling up, Onana versus Rice, Watkins versus Saliba, then Bailey versus Zinchenko / Gabriel. We have to win those battles across the pitch to control possession and territory, but we need to be good at running back towards our goal when the ball does turn over.

This is a big game early on and we will find ourselves under the kosh more than at home to Wolves, but if we’re going to look at some areas of hope, I wonder how the Villa fans and players will feel about playing the counter-attacking approach? If they score early then they won’t care, but if we stifle them, keep them penned in and make sure we don’t open up too much space for transition, they might get on the Villa players’ backs early. We have to be able to impose our game and not make the silly mistake early like we did last season.

At this stage it’s tough to know whether a draw is a good result or not. It doesn’t feel like it when you’re up against 115 Charges FC, but we have to make sure the game faces are on and these Arsenal players manifest what we’ve been reading and hearing about from them in terms of their focus and drive this season.

Fingers crossed for three points, because if we do, it could be massive.

Catch you all tomorrow for a debrief.