Arsenal travel to Aston Villa looking to extend their lead at the top of the Premier League.
The Gunners sit five points clear at the summit, having restored their cushion with a 2-0 win over Brentford on Wednesday.
Manchester City had closed the gap to two points with a topsy-turvy 5-4 victory at Fulham, but Mikel Arteta’s side remain the pace-setters moving towards the festive season.
Villa, meanwhile, came from behind to beat Brighton in midweek, edging a thriller 4-3 at the Amex Stadium as Ollie Watkins netted a brace.
Jan Paul van Hecke and a Pau Torres own goal had put the Seagulls two up inside half an hour, but Watkins’ double, added to by Amadou Onana and Donyell Malen, hauled Villa up to third in the table, a point off City and six adrift of their opponents this weekend.
Date, kick-off time and venue
Aston Villa vs Arsenal is scheduled for a 12.30pm GMT kick-off on Saturday December 6, 2025.
The match will take place at Villa Park.
Where to watch Aston Villa vs Arsenal
TV channel: In the UK, the game will be televised live on TNT Sports 1, with coverage starting at 11.30am GMT.
Live stream: TNT Sports subscribers can also catch the contest live online via the Discovery+ app and website.
Live blog: You can follow all the action on matchday via Standard Sport’s live blog, with expert analysis from Simon Collings at the ground.
Aston Villa vs Arsenal team news
Unai Emery’s Villa side have three major injury concerns. Perhaps the biggest is former Arsenal goalkeeper Emi Martinez, who pulled out of the win at Brighton in the warm-up with a lower back injury.
Emery issued an update on his No1 after the match, praising deputy Marco Bizot for standing in. It remains unclear whether the Argentine will be fit enough to return to action for this match, with Emery saying on Friday that he would not know until “the last moment”.
Otherwise, it is Ross Barkley and Tyrone Mings who are absent. Barkley has a knee injury that could keep him out until February, while Mings is likely to be sidelined until January with his hamstring issue.
As for Arsenal, there were two injury scares from their victory over Brentford.
Declan Rice and Cristhian Mosquera were both forced off at the Emirates Stadium, but Rice eased fears of a serious problem, saying that he would be “fine” following his calf complaint.
Mosquera, meanwhile, came off just before half-time with an ankle issue.
Speaking ahead of the trip to Villa, Arteta was still unsure whether either player could be involved. He said: “We have another training session in the afternoon [Friday]. Every hour is going to be very important to see the availability. So, after that, we will decide who travels.”
He did, however, describe Mosquera’s issue as “more complicated”, while reports now suggest there are fears that he could be missing for six weeks.
William Saliba and Leandro Trossard could both return on Saturday, though Gabriel and Kai Havertz are still out.
Aston Villa vs Arsenal prediction
Trips to Villa Park have produced mixed results for the Gunners.
Their most recent visit was a fruitful one, emerging with a 2-0 win in August last year.
At the Emirates, however, they were held to a 2-2 draw.
Villa are often tricky customers, and are the form side in the division - excluding Arsenal - having won six games on the spin.
This should be a highly entertaining game with both sides throwing caution to the wind.
Draw, 2-2.
Head to head (h2h) history and results
Aston Villa wins:71
Arsenal wins: 88
Draws: 46
Aston Villa vs Arsenal match odds
Aston Villa to win: 10/3
Arsenal to win: 20/23
Draw: 5/2
Odds via Betfair (subject to change).
