Five important Arsenal players may miss the match against Aston Villa.

When Aston Villa hosts Arsenal at Villa Park on Saturday, they will have the opportunity to close the gap on the current league leaders, Arsenal, to just one point.

This weekend, Unai Emery’s team will visit Mikel Arteta’s squad in an attempt to win the league at home for a record-tying fifteenth straight time. Villa defeated champions Manchester City 1-0 on Wednesday to tie their club record.

 

On Saturday, they play an Arsenal team that is vying for Premier League greatness as they lead the standings by two points at the moment. However, as our colleagues at football.london have revealed, the North London team is dealing with a number of injuries.

Although Takehiro Tomiyasu was already a doubt to play last time out against Luton, the right-back now looks set for a spell on the sidelines and will almost certainly miss Saturday’s game. “We assessed him after the game,” Arteta said ahead of the Luton clash. “We took him out for precaution.”

The Spaniard then continued: “We will wait. Whether it’s useful to use him we’ll decide tomorrow. He’s a strong boy hopefully he’ll be fine.” Unfortunately for Tomiyasu he wasn’t fine and is set to join those on the sidelines until 2024. The 25-year-old is expected to miss between four and six weeks, football.london understands.

The list of players that might not make it back until the New Year continues to grow. Emile Smith Rowe is out with a knee issue. “It is a possibility [that he will return for January],” Arteta last said. “Emile has already been on the pitch doing some jogging. He’s a quick healer.”

There’s a chance he returns for the end of the month but the trip to Villa on Saturday comes much too soon. Thomas Partey is also out with a thigh injury and is in the same bracket as Smith Rowe.

Fabio Vieira completes the midfield chasm being formed and is another that is expected to be back in 2024 and not before. “Yeah we’ve got a problem with him,” Arteta said at the time of his groin problem picked up last week. “He’s been having some discomfort. We sent him to see a specialist and the advice was to have an operation in his groin. He did that yesterday. We don’t expect him back this side of the winter break.”

Jurrien Timber is the long-term absentee too but has been making good progress with his recovery.