By Boris Mellor
April 1 2006

The last time Arsenal played Aston Villa at home it was the 49th game of their unbeaten run. They beat Villa 3-1 and the newspapers raved at the excellence of the Gunners football. Pires scored two that day, and Henry the third, of course as is often the case Arsenal could have scored far more.

The last time Arsenal played Aston Villa in the Premiership this season was away and the match resulted in a scrappy nil nil draw. Indeed this was one of Arsenal's better away results, and it is indicative of the Gunner’s season that this mediocre Villa team has the better away record. It's ironic to think that if Arsenal's away record was as good then fourth spot would be assured. However the Villa team struggled to draw at home against Fulham last week, a team that is notoriously poor when playing away.

Now Arsenal on April Fools' Day play Villa on the back of their amazing victory against Juventus. If the Gunners are only 50% as good as they were midweek then one would assume that Villa are about to be blown away. But then one would assume that Arsenal would have blown away Blackburn after winning at the Bernabeu. However this game is at home, and the home record is good, apart from the Chelsea game, and the freakish West Ham defeat; Arsenal should dominate this one.

There maybe some tired legs, or heads, after the superhuman effort against Juve but Arsene can probably afford to rest one or two. Campbell, Freddy, and Dennis are not available along with the other long-term injuries. Nonetheless van Persie, Adebayor, Diaby, Walcott are available and will want to show what they can do.

Wenger will also have to keep in mind that the Juventus match is only four days away, with this in mind he has warned the team that they cannot afford a repeat of the post Madrid flop. In other words he doesn't want them to make April Fools of themselves.