Saturday afternoon’s game at the Emirates Stadium sees fifth place Arsenal host an Aston Villa side one point and one place above the relegation zone.

The Gunners go in to the game having suffered back to back defeats. Tuesday’s 3-1 defeat to Bayern Munich in their Champions League last sixteen tie followed them being knocked out of the FA Cup by Blackburn Rovers last weekend.

They are however unbeaten in their last four games, and could close the gap between themselves and fourth place Tottenham Hotspur to a single point, with Spurs not in action until Monday evening.

Nacho Monreal is set to return to the starting line-up having been ineligible for visit of Bayern, while Carl Jenkinson is available following his suspension though Bacary Sagna and Keiran Gibbs are both injured.

Olivier Giroud is favourite to open the scoring at 5.0 (4/1) with a variety of firms, while top scorer Theo Walcott is a 5.5 (9/2) shot with Ladbrokes.

Arsenal are odds on to get the three points, with a price of 1.36 (4/11) widely on offer, while Aston Villa are 11.0 (10/1) with William Hill. The draw can be backed at 5.5 (9/2).

The visitors haven’t played since their 2-1 victory over West Ham United the weekend before last; a result that lifted them out of the relegation zone.

Charles N’Zogbia is set to be fit after suffering a thigh injury in that game, while Gabriel Agbonlahor and Karim El Ahmadi both return after recovering from illness.

Bet Victor offer 11.0 (10/1) for Christian Benteke to open the scoring with his sixteenth goal of the season, while Andreas Weimann is a 16.0 (15/1) shot with the same firm.