Right now, every game is Arsenal's most important of the season – but this one certainly feels like a must-win. The Gunners have dropped seven points from the last nine available and with Manchester City now level on points, the pressure is on to get back to winning ways and keep up the momentum at the top of the Premier League.
Of course, it's a familiar face standing in their way. Unai Emery managed the Gunners for 18 months and will want to get one over on his previous employers once more, having knocked them out of the Europa League in 2021 with Villarreal. Villa have hit a sticky patch too and are leaking goals – but with their recent record against the north Londoners is good, at least.
Villa beat Arsenal at home in their survival season in 2020, before convincingly smashing them 3-0 at the Emirates Stadium monthly later. Arsenal have won the last three but moments decided these fixtures. Be prepared for another close battle which could go either way.
Unai Emery has named the following Aston Villa starting 11: (4-2-2-2) Emi Martinez; Matty Cash, Ezri Konsa, Tyrone Mings, Alex Moreno; Douglas Luiz, Boubacar Kamara; John McGinn (captain), Philippe Coutinho; Emi Buendia, Ollie Watkins
Mikel Arteta has selected the following Arsenal starting 11: (4-3-3) Aaron Ramsdale; Ben White, William Saliba, Gabriel, Oleksandr Zinchenko; Martin Odegaard (captain), Jorginho, Granit Xhaka; Bukayo Saka, Eddie Nketiah, Leandro Trossard
Form
Arsenal haven't won in three Premier League games but will perhaps feel aggrieved at that. The loss at Everton was a bad performance but a much-improved display against Brentford didn't yield a win, thanks to VAR allowing a clearly offside goal – before Arteta's side dominated proceedings against Manchester City.
Villa haven't won in the last two, either, shipping seven goals in defeats to Man City and Leicester. Having beaten Manchester United and Tottenham this season, however, the Villans will be hopeful of claiming another big scalp in the Gunners. They were beaten 2-1 at the Emirates Stadium in August.
Referee
Simon Hooper will be the referee for Aston Villa vs Arsenal.
Stadium
Aston Villa vs Arsenal will be played at the 42,682-seater Villa Park in Birmingham.
Kick-off and channel
Aston Villa vs Arsenal is at 12:30pm GMT on Saturday February 18 in the UK. The game is being shown on BT Sport Channel.
In the US, kick-off time is 4:30am ET / 7:30am PT. The match will be shown onNBC in the US. See below for international broadcast options.
VPN guide
Use a VPN to watch Premier League football from outside your country
If you’re out of the country for a Premier League fixture, then you won't be able to watch on your domestic streaming service as usual. The broadcaster knows where you are because of your IP address (boo!) and blocks you from watching it. You can use a VPN to get around that, though, without resorting to illegal feeds you’ve found on Reddit.
A Virtual Private Network (VPN), assuming it complies with your broadcaster’s T&Cs, creates a private connection between your device and t'internet, meaning the service can’t work out where you are and will let you watch. And all the info going between is entirely encrypted, anonymous and safe – and that's a result.
There are plenty of good-value options out there.For the Premier League, FourFourTwo currently recommends:
ExpressVPN including a 30-day, money-back guarantee FourFourTwo’s brainy office mates TechRadar love its super speedy connections, trustworthy security and the fact it works with Android, Apple, Roku, Amazon Fire TV, PS5 and loads more. You also get a money-back guarantee, 24/7 support and it's currently available for a knockdown price. Go get it!
(Image credit: Future)
International Premier League TV rights
• UK: Sky Sports and BT Sport are the two main players once again, but Amazon also have a slice of the pie in 2022/23.
• USA: NBC Sports Group are the Premier League rights holders, with the Peacock Premium streaming platform showing even more than the 175 games it aired last season. If you pick up a fuboTV subscription for the games not on Peacock Premium, you'll be able to watch every game.
• Canada: The way to watch Premier League football in 2022/23 is fuboTV, which has exclusive rights to all the action.
• Australia: Optus Sport will screen every game of the Premier League season. Non-subscribers can access the action via a Fetch TV box and other friendly streaming devices.
• New Zealand: Sky Sport are serving up all 380 games – plus various highlights and magazine shows throughout the week, as well as the Champions League.
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Mark White has been at on FourFourTwo since joining in January 2020, first as a staff writer before becoming content editor in 2023. An encyclopedia of football shirts and boots knowledge – both past and present – Mark has also represented FFT at both FA Cup and League Cup finals (though didn't receive a winners' medal on either occasion) and has written pieces for the mag ranging on subjects from Bobby Robson's season at Barcelona to Robinho's career. He has written cover features for the mag on Mikel Arteta and Martin Odegaard, and is assisted by his cat, Rosie, who has interned for the brand since lockdown.
