Manchester City nearly dropped points on Saturday, Manchester United did – now it is up to Arsenal to put on a solid performance, as they target top place in the English Premier League with victory over Aston Villa on Sunday.
Arsenal got out of their Premier League rut – relatively speaking, of course – with a hard-earned 3-1 win over Sunderland last weekend, and now Arsene Wenger will demand another victory against relegation-threatened Aston Villa.
Having put on a performance to remember in the UEFA Champions League in midweek against Olympiakos, the confidence in the squad will be high, but Wenger and Arsenal will do well to ward against complacency when they travel to play the bottom club in the Premier League.
"I believe the result will strengthen the belief of our team, that we have an interesting part to play in this competition," Wenger said. "You have to consider that after our defeat at home against Olympiakos, to go through we had to beat Bayern at home, who had basically not lost a game.
"It was highly unlikely that we would qualify for the 16th [straight] time from the group stages. Then we did beat Bayern and had to go to Olympiakos and to win the way we did was very unlikely, and of course it was a relief for the squad.
"For us, after Wednesday night, it's important that we straight away have a focus," Wenger added. "I'm highly focused on the Premier League and I want us to manage to go from one competition to the other. That's a sign of maturity as well."
Arsenal, who still have Mikel Arteta, Santi Cazorla, Alexis Sanchez, Tomas Rosicky, Danny Welbeck, Jack Wilshere and Francis Coquelin on the treatment table, are currently two points behind leaders Manchester City and Leicester City, who play their game against Chelsea on Monday, and only a victory will see them scale the two sides and go to the top of the table.
Aston Villa, though, are equally desperate for victory, with six points already separating them from the rest of the teams in the league.
Remi Garde, a former Arsenal player, picked up the first pointers of the managerial trade under Wenger, and nothing will give the Aston Villa manager more satisfaction than getting one over his compatriot and mentor.
"It's a little bit different from the other teams," Garde told AVTV. "I really enjoyed my time with Arsenal. Now to be an opponent to Arsenal will be a new thing.
"But I am very happy to receive Arsenal, their manager and their fans to Villa Park. However, when the game starts, no-one has friends any more.
"It's a home game against a very, very good team. We need to know what was good at Southampton [a 1-1 draw] for us and what we didn't do very well. We build on that. We go into this next game with a little bit more confidence."
Where to Watch Live
The EPL game is scheduled for a 1.30 pm local time (7 pm IST, 8.30 am ET) start. Star Sports 4 and Star Sports HD4 will broadcast the match live in India, while the online live streaming options are on Starsports online and Hotstar (slight delay).
Audience in UK can watch Aston Villa vs Arsenal live on Sky Sports 1 and Sky Sports HD1. The live streaming option is on Sky Go UK.
Australia viewers can watch the EPL game live on Fox Sports 4, while the online live streaming options are on Fox Sports On Demand and Foxtel Play.
Watch the EPL game live in the US on NBC Sports Network, with the live stream option on NBC Sports Live Extra.
Audience in Canada can watch Arsenal play Aston Villa live on RDS2 and TSN2, while the action can also be live streamed on TSN TV.
103 mio will show the match live on TV in Singapore, while viewers in Thailand can watch Aston Villa vs Arsenal live on CTH. LeTV and Now Sports are the channels to watch the match live in Hong Kong, while viewers in China can catch the EPL game live on PPTV Sports.
Audience in the Middle East and North Africa will be able to watch the EPL match live on Bein Sports Arabia 11 HD, with the live streaming option on Bein Sports Connect.
