Tom McGarry’s Bet Builder for Arsenal’s trip to Villa Park include goals at both ends with an Arsenal star on the scoresheet.
Saturday evening’s offering looks to be the highest-profile match of the second Premier League weekend of the season as both Aston Villa and Arsenal will aim to build on encouraging opening wins at Villa Park.
Villa, who finished fourth last season to claim a place in the Champions League, were 2-1 winners at West Ham, while Arsenal will probably anticipate a stronger test than the one they received in their 2-0 win over Wolves at the Emirates.
Unai Emery’s Midlanders got the better of the Gunners in both of their league meetings last season and he will have eyes on gaining three more points against Mikel Arteta’s side on Saturday.
Best bets
Both teams to score 4/6
Anytime Goalscorer – Bukayo Saka 13/8
Total Corners – Over 9.5 4/5
Returns: 11/2
Entertaining clash looks likely
There looks a strong chance that this match will live up to the hype and the Gunners are unlikely to sit back after winning eight of their last nine league away games.
The only match when they did not claim victory in that run was a goalless draw at Manchester City, but they should be much more positive than they were in that clash with the champions at the Etihad Stadium.
They kept eight clean sheets in that sequence but the exception came in a 3-2 win at Tottenham and we could see a similarly proactive performance from Villa on Saturday as we did from Spurs on that occasion.
Villa kept just one clean sheet in their final 11 Villa Park outings of last season but they failed to notch in just one home game in the entire campaign.
Their final four matches on their own patch featured 20 goals and there looks a strong chance both teams will net in this one.
Expect Saka to be at the heart of the action
Arsenal boss Mikel Arteta has assembled a talented squad but wideman Bukayo Saka is emerging as his star player and the England international was on target in the Gunners’ 2-0 win over Wolves last week.
Saka has scored 31 league goals since the start of the 2022/23 season, including three in his last four matches, and he has been particularly strong on the road.
He has scored 10 goals in his last 10 league road games and he should be backed to continue that strong form at Villa Park.
Corner count looks set to go high
With an attacking game in prospect, the statistics from last season suggest there could be plenty of corners in the game.
Arsenal’s tally of 265 from their 38 league games last term was the third largest in the top flight and they averaged at just under seven per match, and with Villa accumulating a sixth-placed total of 231, there looks a strong chance that the combined flag-kick figure in Saturday’s match reaches double figures, so put over 9.5 corners in your Bet Builder.