Arsenal and Mikel Arteta handed Aston Villa boost as Unai Emery faces triple midfield nightmare

Arsenal will take on an Aston Villa side in the Premier League who have a midfield nightmare on their hands.

Arsenal have the tough task of wrestling attention away from the Champions League and back to the testing title chase with their clash with Aston Villa on Sunday. The increased fallout from the drama-filled tie with Bayern Munich has meant the impending visit of Unai Emery’s side has almost been lost to some degree but with the game now just days away it needs to become the priority.

Mikel Arteta faces the task of managing minutes across these next weeks whilst also looking to remain competitive across all fixtures. Thankfully, he has got plenty of his stars back at the perfect time and is still waiting on Jurrien Timber to return too.

Emery meanwhile is facing a midfield problem ahead of this weekend. In the final moments of Villa’s clash with Brentford, in the 97th minute no less, Douglas Luiz was yellow carded and given his tenth booking of the season.

This is meaningful because it means he now faces a two-match suspension and will miss the visit to the Emirates Stadium. Luiz has been arguably the biggest mainstay in the Villa team alongside Ollie Watkins and Emi Martinez.

The only Premier League game he has missed is the 2-1 away win at Brentford which was for serving a suspension due to collecting five yellow cards. Otherwise, he has featured in every other fixture Villa have played, starting 41 of 45 matches.

In the game he was not available against Brentford, Emery went with a midfield pair of John McGinn and Boubacar Kamara. However, the Frenchman has since suffered a major knee injury ruling him out for the season.

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This hadn’t been too much of a problem considering Luiz would start with the likes of McGinn or Youri Tielemans. However, the Scotsman has moved into the attacking midfield spot with Jacob Ramsey also missing through injury and Tielemans moved in alongside Luiz.

With all three of Luiz, Kamara and Ramsey out, the likelihood is that Tielemans will now be partnered either alongside McGinn with another playing the attacking midfield role or 20-year-old Tim Iroegbunam who has started just two Premier League matches in his career.

Arsenal meanwhile can call on any of Declan Rice, Thomas Partey, Jorginho, Martin Odegaard, Emile Smith Rowe, Kai Havertz and Fabio Vieira to make up their midfield three. This is a distinct advantage and one Arteta will be looking to maximise on Sunday.

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