It’s beginning to look a lot like Christmas a three-way title race …
… and while few at the start of the season would have identified one of the protagonists as Aston Villa, here we are. Since losing at Anfield at the start of November, Unai Emery’s side have gone on a remarkable run, winning 11 matches in a row, eight of those in the Premier League. One of those wins came at the expense of Arsenal 24 days ago, so they’ll head to the Emirates tonight full of confidence, hoping to complete a third league double over their hosts in six seasons. The Lions are purring.
Arsenal by contrast … well, they’re not exactly struggling, are they, sitting atop the table, on a three-match winning run in the league. But they’re not quite hitting the heights of that late-November Bayern Munich / Tottenham Hotspur sweet spot. They’ve kind of stumbled over the line in their last three home fixtures – league wins over Wolves and Brighton, and the Carabao victory against Crystal Palace – while this weird stat of four of their last six goals being scored by the opposition, with one of the other two a penalty, doesn’t exactly inspire total confidence in a team that’s come up painfully short for three consecutive seasons.
