In four days, we enjoyed two terrific wins and witnessed some of the best football of the season. But, we should not be carried away as Villa will pay a visit at the Emirates and they’ve been very good so far.

Injury-wise, it seems as if Emmanuel Adebayor and Manuel Almunia may make it. Coach Arsene Wenger told Arsenal TV a couple of days ago:

We will assess the situation of Adebayor on Friday. He is 50-50. We have to assess Almunia too. He got that knock on his head against Manchester United and until now we have not exposed him. He has to go into a normal [training] game to see how he deals with it. So he is 70-30 at the moment.

Now I’m not sure what to make of such comments. I mean, after Tuesday’s brilliant display in the Carling Cup by both Fabianski and Vela, you would expect our coach to say something like Emmanuel is 50-50 and Manuel is 70-30 so I won’t risk them because I’ve got players capable of replacing them. But unfortunately no, it seems as if there is an obscure reason why players who perform so well are still relegated on the bench, even if this means prefering to go out there with non-100% fit players. It’s a shame, really.

The news as at today are more optimistic on the two, and also on Eduardo as the coach confirmed on Sky Sports:

Adebayor is back in the squad but I will decide (if he plays) on Saturday. Almunia is doing well and has recovered completely. Eduardo is close to full training and should be playing in two to three weeks.

Don’t get me wrong, I believe Adebayor and Vela would form a terrific partnership up front, but that would be a bit harsh on Bendtner and that’s why I hope Nicklas and Carlos start, with Adebayor on the bench in case the match doesn’t go as planned. After all, with the Togo striker recovering and Eduardo and Van Persie to make their domestic comebacks soon, the two youngsters may not get another chance to shine together.

Aston Villa coach Martin O’Neill said:

On their own patch they are a very fine footballing side. It will be an interesting game because they now think they are back on track for the title. It was a big game for them against Manchester United last weekend – it was a game they had to win and they did it. Now it’s up to us because we have to try to win a game to put ourselves back on track.

The match will kick-off at 15:00 in the UK, that’s 16:00CET. As always, team line-ups, half-time and full-time reports, player ratings and video highlights will be available before, during and after the match.