Inside Villa Park: Arsenal favours continue, Onana speaks out on injuries & major Boxing Day change
Aston Villa continue to do favours for Arsenal, as Amadou Onana opens up on injuries and Boxing Day football faces major change
Our dedicated Aston Villa reporter is always on the pulse of all things claret and blue, from major talking points to transfer news to match action, John Townley will bring you the very latest from Bodymoor Heath and Villa Park.
Aston Villa put the shock of losing to Go Ahead Eagles behind them on Sunday after beating Man City 1-0.
Unai Emery’s side were good value for the victory, with Matty Cash scoring the only goal of the game in the 19th minute.
It means Villa have now won six of their last seven games, including each of their last four in the Premier League.
Their winning run in the league will be put to the test once again on Saturday night when they take on Liverpool at Anfield.
Opportunity knocks at Anfield
After losing 3-2 at Brentford last Saturday, Liverpool became just the fourth reigning Premier League champions to lose four consecutive games — after Leicester in 2016-17 (five), Liverpool themselves in 2020-21 (four) and Man City last season (four).
They’ve also now lost as many Premier League games this season as they did in the entirety of last season (four), while also suffering consecutive league defeats for the first time since February 2021.
The form book is firmly in Villa’s favour ahead of the weekend meeting on Merseyside, even if many expect Liverpool to respond to their poor run of form soon enough.
Defensively, Liverpool have been a world away from the standards they set through most of last season, which provides Villa with an exciting opportunity.
In fact, since the start of May, Liverpool have conceded two or more goals in more Premier League games than any other side (nine).
They’ve let in 14 goals in their nine Premier League games this season — and hadn’t conceded their 14th goal last season until matchweek 16.
When domestic football returned from the October international break, Arsenal were leading the Premier League table by just one point over Liverpool, with Tottenham two points further back in third.
Just three points behind Arsenal were Man City, so it’s no exaggeration to say that Villa have already done Arsenal two big favours in the last two matchweeks by defeating both Spurs and City.
That, coupled with Liverpool’s poor form, has allowed the Gunners to pull away from the chasing pack — and their position could look even stronger if Villa take a result from Liverpool this weekend.
For Villa, victory at Anfield could move them just one point off second place, with second-placed Bournemouth facing City in fifth.
Onana’s challenge to stay injury free
In our Claret & Blue season preview, my “one to watch” this campaign was Amadou Onana.
The Belgian has all the tools needed to become a top Premier League midfielder — and he looked like one against City last weekend.
Onana recorded a passing accuracy of 98 per cent, misplacing just one of the 43 passes he attempted, while also playing four accurate long balls.
He made four blocks and three clearances, won three tackles and six ground duels, and made two headed clearances.
After starting Villa’s last three matches against Spurs, Go Ahead Eagles and City, Onana spoke to the press about his challenge of finding more consistency in his game.
That consistency will likely come if Onana stays fit, with injuries having been a real difficulty for him during his first 15 months or so at the club.
“It is any player’s worst nightmare when you are sidelined and you see the team is not doing well and you want to help but can’t,” Onana said.
“I was just focused on getting back healthy and ready to help the team.”
Boxing Day football shake-up
A number of Premier League games are traditionally played on Boxing Day, but that is set to change this year.
According to various reports, the Premier League will have just one fixture scheduled on December 26 this year.
To meet their contractual obligations, the league must provide 33 weekends of football to broadcasters, but the expansion of UEFA competitions and the shifting of FA Cup matches to weekends appear to have impacted the scheduling.
This year, Boxing Day falls on a Friday, so the single game would be followed by the usual weekend round of Premier League fixtures.
Villa take on Chelsea in their first league fixture after Christmas, before travelling back to London to face Arsenal in their New Year’s game.
Claret & Blue catch-up
Will Villa continue their strong form at Liverpool? Tell us here
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Watch Go Ahead Eagles vs Aston Villa on TNT Sports
Aston Villa continue their UEFA Europa League campaign as they face Go Ahead Eagles on October 23. Fans can watch the game on the TNT Sports Prime Video channel.
