Aston Villa will be hoping to bounce back immediately after a shocking performance and defeat to Brighton. But Unai Emery is coming up against his former employers, Arsenal, at one of the worst possible times.

The Gunners started their EPL title defence with a 3-0 demolition job over Premier League new boys Coventry. They will have another opportunity to stamp their authority when the two teams meet at Villa Park on Tuesday, September 1 at 05:00 AEST.

Quick Picks

Our pick: Arsenal to win

Value bet: BTTS not hitting

Long shot: Over 3.5 Goals

Betting Preview

Aston Villa are a club in turmoil. They’ve lost many of their key players from last year’s Champions League-qualifying efforts, with Ezri Konsa moving to Arsenal, following Morgan Rogers, Youri Tielemans, and Lucas Digne out of the club.

Rumours continue to swirl around Ollie Watkins’ exit from the club, while controversial Argentinian goalkeeper Emi Martinez is the subject of interest from Chelsea.

New additions have been made to the team, although João Gomes will be missing following a red card in the 4-0 mauling by Brighton on debut.

Goalkeeper Zion Suzuki could make his debut, while Johan Manzambi looks unlikely to play as he continues his recovery. Matteo Ruggeri made his debut in the defeat, while Aaron Wan-Bissaka could come into the team.

By contrast, Arsenal appear to be one of the most stable clubs in the Premier League.

Mikel Arteta has kept the core of his squad together, with Leandro Trossard departing. Gabriel Martinelli could still leave, but Greek winger Christos Tzolis is already looking like a solid addition after an assist against Coventry on his Premier League debut.

Bruno Guimarães could feature after missing the opener, while Konsa could also feature against his former club after a big-money move.

Arsenal should control more of the ball at Villa Park, but this is a dangerous stylistic test, as Emery will want his side to try and exploit Arsenal’s high positioning into quick, direct attacks and apply set-piece pressure.

Betting Markets to Watch

The market reflects what happened last weekend, with the Gunners deemed large opening pre-match favourites.

Still, the H2H isn’t necessarily in Arsenal’s favour across the last 5 EPL meetings. Villa won 2-1 in the previous meeting at Villa Park, although the visitors won the fixture 2-0 in 2024.

Overall, the last five matches have seen each side win twice and one draw (2-2 at the Emirates).

As highlighted by the EPL form analysis, though, Arteta’s squad is much more settled, while Emery’s side could still be feeling the after-effects of what happened in their opener. With this in mind, we think there could be goals in this game.

The ‘ Over 2.5 Goals ’ market has value, with Arsenal free-flowing.

That said, we think there’s value in the BTTS not hitting . Villa didn’t mount an attacking challenge against Brighton and used Emi Buendia as their forward.

Against Arsenal, this is unlikely to work. Arsenal already have two clean sheets so far in competitive games, despite being without William Saliba alongside Gabriel, and David Raya looks impossible to beat.

Our Prediction

Check the latest Aston Villa vs Arsenal betting odds at Sportsbet. Our prediction is that Arsenal will be the likely winners of this game.

We think there’s long shot value in the ‘Over 3.5 Goals’ , with Arsenal boasting plenty of confidence and the hosts perhaps still shell-shocked from what happened in MW1.

For a look at how the rest of the round shapes up, it is worth checking out our EPL predictions across this week's fixtures.