Aston Villa vs Arsenal – Match preview

December 26, 2008 by Martin Banks
Filed under: Aston Villa, Match Previews 

0pic39With Villa currently 3 points and two places ahead of Arsenal, as well as the home team, we have to fancy ourselves in this game much more so than we usually do when facing Arsene Wenger’s men. We beat them down at their place in a game that saw us play sensationally and Arsenal play as inconsistently as they have for much of the campaign.

The win would put us 6 points clear of the Arse, a loss would see them go above us on goal difference and a draw would maintain our 3 point advantage and top four placing.

In this glorious Christmas position we find ourselves in, the teams we are looking up to catch are Chelsea and Liverpool! Who’d have thought we could say that back in August? IF (and be aware that that’s a huge if) Liverpool were to fail to beat Bolton at Anfield AND Chelsea were to fail to beat West Brom at Stamford Bridge (stop laughing!) AND we beat Arsenal, then by the Hull game we would be within reach of top. OK, so it’s pie in the sky dreams, but thats not the point; we know we aren’t going to go top but its fantastic to be able to even toy with the idea.

Villa are still unsure on the fitness of Carlos Cuellar and Martin Laursen looks unlikely to play, so if they don’t make it we will be calling in 2 of these 3: Nicky Shorey, Zat Knight & Nigel Reo-Coker. This isn’t the best news to get ahead of a game against Arsenal, but they’ll be without captain Fabregas, star striker Adebayor, Rosicky, England whippet Walcott, Toure, Bendtner and Eduardo, so there’s still plenty of hope.

The game kicks off at 17.15 GMT (19.15 PST) and is live on Sky Sports for UK readers (if you don’t subscribe then get down the pub!). For non-UK readers, it’s on the following giant list of satellite channels:

Alfa TV Cyprus
C+ France
C+ Hi-Tech
C+ Sport 1 (Pol)
C+ Sport 2 (D/F/N/S)
Diema 2
EuroSport 2 (FAPL)
Fox Soccer Channel **
G Sports 1
Hi Soccer
Nova Sport (Cze)
Nova Sports 1 (Hellas)
NTV+ Football
Pink M
Premiere Sport Portal
RTS 2 (Ser)
Show Sports 1 & 2
Showtime Magreb (ART)
Sky Calcio 1
Sky Sport 1 (Italy)
Sky Sport 16:9 (Italy)
Sky Super Calcio
Spormax Digiturk
Sport 1 (Ned)
Sport 1 (Ukr)
Sport TV1
Sportsmax
STV 3 Slovakia
SuperSport 1 (DigitAlb)
SuperSport 3 (ZA)
Tele Deporte
YES Sport 2
~ C+ Sport HD (D/F/N/S)
~ C+ Sport HD (Pol)
~ NTV+ Sport HD
~ Sky Sport HD1 (Italy)
~ Sky Sports HD1 (uk)
~ Spormax HD
~ Sport HD (Ukr)
~ Sport TV HD
~ SuperSport HD1

or to find a stream click here about an hour before match time. Happy watching.


Comments

Tell me what you're thinking...
and oh, if you want a pic to show with your comment, go get a gravatar!