Aston Villa and Steven Gerrard are what stand in Arsenal's way of still being in charge of the exciting Premier League top-four race heading into the March international break.
It's been a mixed week for the Gunners results-wise. Last Sunday they beat Leicester City 2-0 at the Emirates Stadium to reclaim fourth from Manchester United following win over Tottenham Hotspur. However, three days later Mikel Arteta's side were on the wrong end of the same scoreline against Liverpool.
What this means is that Arsenal must avoid defeat at Villa Park on Saturday if they're to end the weekend in fourth place. Although, recent history is against the north London outfit as they have lost 1-0 on their last two visits to the ground.
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With that said, they did end a run of three straight defeats against Villa in the reverse meeting earlier in the season with Thomas Partey, Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang and Emile Smith Rowe all on the scoresheet.
But much has changed since October, most notably in the Aston Villa dugout as Steven Gerrard replaced Dean Smith the following month and is averaging 1.44 points per match, as per transfermarkt. To improve on that record against the Gunners, the Liverpool legend will have to make do without left-back Lucas Digne who is sidelined with the hamstring injury that caused him to limp off after 10 minutes against West Ham United last weekend.
"Lucas Digne will miss the game tomorrow," Gerrard revealed in his pre-match press conference. "He’s nursing a hamstring issue. I don’t think the issue is too big, so he won’t be out for too long. He'll join up and be assessed by France, having been called up. I think he’ll be a big doubt for the first game and an outside chance for their second game. He’ll obviously miss tomorrow’s game for us."
Digne, who arrived at Villa Park from Everton in the January transfer window, is one of three players unavailable for selection against Arsenal with Gerrard revealing Marvelous Nakamba and Kortney Hause are also absent.
"Marvelous Nakamba will be in full training for us after the international break, which is positive," Gerrard added. "He’s not too far away and he’ll do certain sessions with our Under-23 group next week. We'll integrate him into the first team set-up. That’s good news for us. Kortney Hause has got an abdominal issue and he’ll be missing tomorrow as well."
In Hause's absence, it's likely that Calum Chambers will get the nod to start alongside captain Tyrone Mings at the heart of the Villa defence, meaning the 27-year-old is in line to face Arsenal for the first time since leaving in January.
And Gerrard has warned his defenders that they must defend a lot better than they did in the 2-1 loss against the Hammers, whilst also praising Arteta for the 'fantastic' job he's done at the Emirates since September.
"The takeaway was that we can’t give the ball away in silly areas and we need to defend our box better," he added. "Arsenal are in great form since September and I think Mikel Arteta’s done a fantastic job. He’s really found that consistency that Arsenal have been looking for for a long time.
"Credit to him for that. This game will be different tactically to West Ham. We need to try and find the solutions and a game plan ready for this fixture. I’m not sure it’ll look too similar to West Ham because we’re talking about two different styles and two different teams."
