Aston Villa vs Arsenal LIVE: Emery looks to dent Gunners' title hopes as season starts at Villa Park – kick-off time, team news and how to follow

Aston Villa host Arsenal this weekend in an enticing early-season clash between two top-flight sides.

The Gunners are looking to finally win the Premier League title after coming close last season, although two defeats to Villa and former coach Unai Emery cost them dearly.

Mikel Arteta He will hope his team can learn the lessons from those defeats and turn things around against the Villains.

Meanwhile, EmeryRoma's men are now one of the best teams in the top flight and will provide another serious test for the team. Arsenal.

Villa are set to compete in the Champions League this year after finishing fourth last season, but before it all gets underway they have the chance to send a message to the rest of the league by getting a result here.

It certainly looks set to be a fascinating match between two excellent teams.

Aston Villa vs Arsenal: Saka brilliant

After an incredibly busy season and summer for Bukayo SakaThere were concerns that he might not be quite ready to start working right away.

But despite barely featuring in pre-season after helping England reach the Euro 2024 final, the winger started the 2-0 win over Wolves and picked up exactly where he left off.

Saka was instrumental in the opening matchday victory, setting up Kai Havertz's goal with a sublime cross from the right.

He then scored the second when Havertz passed to him inside the area, and he turned to his left and unleashed a fierce shot inside the near post.

Aside from his goal and assist, Saka was extremely accurate throughout the match and looks set to be eager to play this season.

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• Aston Villa beat Arsenal twice last season, accounting for 40% of the Gunners' Premier League defeats (2/5). They had already beaten Arsenal in three consecutive Premier League games on two previous occasions: November 1993 and February 2021.
• Arsenal have won 14 Premier League away games against Aston Villa, with those 14 wins at Villa Park being their most at a single stadium away from home in the competition (also 14 at Selhurst Park).
• Aston Villa have won five of their last nine Premier League meetings with Arsenal (L4), keeping clean sheets in all of them. That is the same number of wins they had managed in their previous 46 meetings with the Gunners (L14 L27).

Aston Villa vs Arsenal: Date and how to follow

This Premier League match will take place on Saturday, August 24.

Kick-off at Villa Park is scheduled for 5:30 p.m.

The match will be broadcast on Sky Sports Main Event and Premier League.

Sky Go customers will be able to tune in via their laptops and mobile devices.

Alternatively, fans can tune in via NOW TV, with options starting at £14.99 for a day pass, £26 per month for a year and £34.99 for a renewable monthly contract.

talkSPORT will have updates throughout the afternoon and talkSPORT.com will have a live blog.

To tune in to talkSPORT via the website, Click HERE for the live stream.

You can also listen through talkSPORT Appon DAB digital radio, through your smart speaker and on 1089 or 1053 AM.

• Arsenal have scored 98 Premier League goals against Aston Villa, and have only scored more against Everton (124), West Ham (109) and Tottenham (105). Only Liverpool and Manchester United (5 opponents each) have scored more than 100 Premier League goals against more different teams.
• Aston Villa are looking to win their opening two Premier League games of a season for the fourth time, having also done so in 1995-96, 1999-00 and 2020-21.
• Arsenal have won eight of their nine Premier League away games so far in 2024 (D1), scoring 28 goals, conceding three and keeping seven clean sheets. Indeed, the Gunners have kept 21 clean sheets on the road in the last two seasons (10 in 2022-23, 11 in 2023-24), more than in the previous four campaigns combined (20).

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Aston Villa vs Arsenal: team news

Villa are still without Tyrone Mings and Boubacar Kamara after they suffered anterior cruciate ligament injuries last year, but Emi Buendia is fully fit after overcoming his own similar injury.

New signings Samuel Illing-Junior and Enzo Barrenechea were left out of Villa's squad for their 2-1 win over West Ham, so it remains to be seen whether they will get a chance here.

Emery is also likely to have to make a decision in attack after Jhon Duran scored the winner coming off the bench in place of Ollie Watkins, who only played 60 minutes.

For the visitors, Takehiro Tomiyasu is out with a knee injury and joins Fabio Vieira and Kieran Tierney on the sidelines.

But in better news for Arteta, he has Jurrien Timber fully fit, while new signing Riccardo Calafiori will also be raring to go.

If either of them does go into defence, Oleksandr Zinchenko is expected to be the one left out.

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• Aston Villa are the only team to have beaten Arsenal in the Premier League in 2024, having won 2-0 in April. The Gunners have won 17 of 19 games this calendar year (L1 D1); in Football League history, the most wins by a team in their first 20 games in a year is 18, won by Liverpool in 1982 and Man City in both 2019 and 2021.
• Since 17 February, when Arsenal beat Burnley 5-0, no Premier League player has managed more goals and assists in total than Kai Havertz (10 goals, 7 assists). However, Havertz is yet to score or assist in seven games against Aston Villa, the most he has ever managed against an opponent without doing so.
• Among all Premier League players with 5 or more goals, Aston Villa's Jhon Duran has the second-best minutes-per-goal ratio (six goals, one every 103 minutes), behind only Erling Haaland (one every 85 minutes). Five of his six goals have come as a substitute (83%), the second-highest ratio by a player in Premier League history (min. 5 goals), behind Matt Derbyshire, who scored nine of his 10 goals as a substitute.
• Bukayo Saka has won 99 of his 171 Premier League games for Arsenal. If he wins here, he will become only the fourth player to reach 100 wins in the competition before turning 23, after Wayne Rooney, Cesc Fabregas and Phil Foden.

Aston Villa vs Arsenal: What has been said?

Amadou Onana enjoyed an excellent debut for Villa after completing a £50million move from Everton earlier this summer.

The Belgian opened the scoring from a corner and thwarted numerous West Ham attacks and Emery is thrilled with what he has seen.

He said: “There is still a lot of work to be done and the potential is great.

“We need to go through a process with him to exploit that potential.

“It's about quickly identifying how we want to play with him and how he dominates the position he plays.

“He is very mature in learning everything tactically as quickly as possible.”