Arsenal vs Villarreal preview: How to watch, predicted lineups, score prediction & injury updates

Arsenal host Villarreal at the Emirates Stadium on Thursday aiming to overturn a 2-1 first leg deficit in their Europa League semi-final second leg clash. Here is the match preview.

“I wish it need not have happened in my time.”

“So do I, and so do all who live to see such times. But that is not for them to decide.

“All we have to decide is what to do with the time that is given to us.”

Mikel Arteta will have wished that debacle of a setup for the first leg had not have happened. So do all supporters. Unfortunately, that fate is in his and his players’ hands, and the next 90 minutes is theirs to amend.

How will they go about doing that? How will Arteta see fit to approach this fixture? How will Unai Emery see fit to approach this fixture? We’ll know soon enough on Thursday.

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Arsenal vs Villarreal Europa League preview: Thursday’s semi-final second leg clash vs Unai Emery’s side

What is wise to do is forget the failings of the first leg. Bury them deep in the mind. Arteta sought to bamboozle his opponent and succeeded only is puzzling his own team. Poor ploy, acceptably bad execution. That’s in the past now, no point crying over spilled milk and so forth.

So, it’s time to put it right.

Learn from previous errors and put out a team with the tactical blueprint ingrained in them like a dodgy Greek island tattoo, one they can’t forget even if they try very, very hard to cover up.

Arsenal need this. Not much was made of the importance of winning last season’s FA Cup but if they hadn’t have secured that trophy this entire situation wouldn’t have arisen in the first place. The transformative impact of lifting this European title will reverberate into the months and years ahead.

It starts by beating Unai Emery’s Villarreal. Of course, beating them may not do. A 3-2 win and Arsenal are out. It’s either a 1-0 victory – a highly unlikely scenario given the nervousness that echoes around fixtures at the Emirates – or by two clear goals.

A strange occasion seeing Emery back on the carpet will be one clipped up and meme’d until the cows come home. Does the crushing blow of crashing out at this stage really need to be more brutal considering he’s the one who oversaw it?

That would be playing the occasion, always a damaging approach to fixtures. Arsenal need to play the game, their game, in the manner they know and a one-game shootout with Manchester United awaits. Get it done.

How to Watch on TV

When Is Kick Off? Thursday 6 May
What Time Is Kick Off? 20:00 (GMT)
Where Is it Played? Emirates Stadium
TV Channel/Live Stream? BT Sport (UK) fuboTV (USA)
Referee? Slavko Vinčić

Arsenal Team News vs Villarreal

Not much change from the first leg, despite by this point supporters expecting to have Alexandre Lacazette leading the line and Kieran Tierney bringing an end to this Granit Xhaka left-back experiment. One that has worked, just has run its course.

But no, Arteta confirmed in the pre-match interview against Newcastle, of all places, that Lacazette and Tierney hadn’t trained in the build-up to Sunday and were expected to miss the ‘upcoming matches’, not just Thursday.

We won’t delve into the bizarre ‘in contention’ updates again. However, while both were pictured in training on Tuesday, it nonetheless must be too soon for either to start.

It was a hammer blow to see David Luiz forced off against Newcastle having made his return from a knee injury, especially since the time he was on the pitch perfectly illustrated the distribution qualities he possesses, the like no centre-back in the team can match.

https://twitter.com/Arsenal/status/1389585076053291010

He is set to be back before the end of the season with the hamstring pull not as bad as initially feared, yet he’s still a certain absentee for Villarreal. As his Dani Ceballos, who is suspended.

Up front it looks like being Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang to lead the line in a false-nine role (that’s a joke) after featuring for 78 minutes against Magpies, an almost perfect afternoon for him as he also got on the scoresheet.

One of the key aspects of Sunday’s game was who wasn’t playing: no Bukayo Saka or Emile Smith Rowe gave the pair rests they sorely needed. Indeed, Arsenal now rest their academy stars for big games.

As for the visitors they come into this tie with a near clean bill of health, missing Juan Foyth who was forced off with injury in the first leg as well as Etienne Capoue, who got himself sent off despite valiant attempts to feign the most pathetic injury ever before then starting just a few days later in La Liga.

Arsenal Predicted Lineup vs Villarreal

Arsenal: Leno; Bellerin, Holding, Mari, Xhaka; Partey, Elneny, Saka, Odegaard, Pepe; Aubameyang

Villarreal: Rulli; Mario, Albiol, Torres, Pedraza; Chukwueze, Coquelin, Parejo, Trigueros, Gomez; Moreno

Arsenal vs Villarreal Score Prediction

Coming into this second leg, fans will be having flashbacks – perhaps forced – of the previous round. Taking on Slavia Prague at home Arteta got his selections and setup horribly wrong. The Czech side were known for adopting a high line and the decision to field Willian and Alexandre Lacazette in the side did everything possible to avoid exploiting that.

Eventually in that game Nicolas Pepe and Aubameyang came on to turn the tide, only for slack defending to gift the opposition a late goal.

https://twitter.com/Arsenal/status/1389535281821388802

Then, in the second leg, the personnel changed and the result was one of the high points of the season. Arsenal knew where to hurt Slavia Prague and after a brief bedding in period they tore them to shreds in a first half blitz.

Will Arteta take a leaf out of his own book? Realise the errors of his ways and set them right on Thursday? While it’s impossible to place yourself in the manager’s head, he persisted with Xhaka at left-back in the win over Newcastle, which points towards continuity in that department.

But, who are we to know? Just like claiming Lacazette and Tierney may be fit it could be another batch of mind games.

What may help Arsenal is Emery’s approach – more to come on this – as a conservative mindset with one striker could play into the hosts’ hands. Depending how Villarreal it may be a fixture where set pieces prove crucial, which is a shame as Arsenal do not offer anything in the opposition box.

One saving grace is that surely Arsenal can’t be worse than they were in the first leg. They absolutely can, yet the performance of Ceballos did not help on the day and it showed clearly when Thomas Partey came alive once his midfield partner was sent off.

It’s going to be nervy, it’s going to be mostly horrible. It’s going to get done the hard way.

Score Prediction: Arsenal 2-1 Villarreal (Arsenal 3-1 Villarreal AET)