Category World News

Who: Aston Villa vs. Arsenal
What: English Premier League
Where: Emirates Stadium, London, UK
When: Tuesday at 8:15pm (20:15 GMT)
How to follow: We’ll have all the build-up on Al Jazeera Sport from 17:00 GMT in advance of our live text commentary stream.

Aston Villa’s stunning recent form has made them legitimate title contenders when they travel to league leaders Arsenal, despite not capturing any of their first six games of the season.

Unai Emery’s men are now within three points of the Gunners at the top of the table with eight Premier League victories in a row, including 11 in all competitions, which is their longest winning streak since 1914.

Emery will be eager to win at his previous employer, Arsenal, where he took over as manager in February, less than a year after taking over from Arsene Wenger.

Arsenal set up a six-point lead over them in the first half of the league this year, but they have since looked less convincing and lost 2-1 to Villa in Birmingham earlier in December after conceding a last-gasp goal.

Manchester City briefly took the lead over the weekend, but the Gunners resurrected control with a spirited 2-1 win over Brighton, while Villa rallied from behind to record an impressive 2-1 win away at Chelsea.

“We are very competitive,” he said.

Emery makes a rare managerial failure on Tuesday, returning to the scene of his most recent outings, with the goal of a major blow to former Premier League champion Arsenal’s long-awaited bid for a title.

The Spaniard’s transformation from battling relegation to contending for their first league title since 1981 has led to the awakening of a sleeping giant in Villa.

“We are doing a very good job.” We are currently third in the league, trailing only Manchester City and Arsenal. Emery commanded admiration after he orchestrated a second-half turnaround at Stamford Bridge on Saturday.

The Blues were putting an end to Villa’s 1-0 lead before an hour-long triple substitution made the game change.

Ollie Watkins praised his manager’s switch of system as “tactical genius” after he came off the bench to score twice.

Emery has a strong record against Arsenal.

Few people think Villa will be able to survive 20 more games against Arsenal and City’s much greater wealth and squad depth. However, Emery’s three-year tenure as president is just the start of a trend on the upward trajectory.

The Villains have qualified for continental competition for the past three seasons following a 13-year absence from Europe, which included a three-year stint in the second-tier championship.

Paris Saint-Germain (PSG) were on the verge of a shock victory at Villa Park in April, but they escaped and won the Champions League quarterfinal 5-4 overall, going on to win the competition for the first time.

In addition, Emery has lost just twice in 10 meetings against Arsenal in competitions at PSG, Villarreal, and Villa, including a 2-0 victory at the Emirates in April 2024, which ultimately cost Mikel Arteta’s men the title.

Even Emery’s disastrous 18 months in north London were not without their own misery. The 54-year-old inherited a club that was in decline during Wenger’s final years, but he only managed to make it a Champions League team in his final full season in charge and reach the Europa League final.

Everyone is “everybody ready to do whatever it takes.”

Martin Odegaard, the captain of Arsenal, thinks that Declan Rice’s “unbelievable” performance as an emergency right-back against Brighton shows that they are “ready to do whatever it takes” to win the Premier League.

Rice, one of the standout midfielders in the league this season, could be required to play there again on Tuesday due to Jurrien Timber and Ben White’s absence.

It was unbelievable to play right-back [probably]for the first time in his life, and then execute it the way he did it today, according to Odegaard.

“And that’s just our team,” he continued. Rice’s performance was another excellent illustration of how everyone is willing to do whatever it takes.

Gunners handling injuries in an “unbelievable way”

It should have been a straightforward three points for the hosts when Odegaard scored the opener for Arsenal against Brighton in the 14th minute and Georginio Rutter’s own goal from a Rice corner made it 2-0 shortly after the break.

However, Diego Gomez’s response to Brighton altered the tone of the match, and Arsenal came away with a victory at the end of the match.

Arteta compared a victory that should have been easier to say, “The knock-on effect of winning is incredibly powerful.”

“The Premier League should never be 2-1,” he said.

We have a lot of issues, and we’re dealing with them in an incredible way, like when we lost Jurrien [Timber] and today we lost [Riccardo] Calafiori in the warm-up. When Declan Rice is required to play at fullback, you can see how well he performed, and that’s how our players want it.

Head-to-head

The two clubs first fought 120 years ago, and 206 of those matches saw Aston Villa win 72 and 46 of those games ended in draws.

Arsenal last recorded a win over Villa in August 2024 with a 2-0 away win over Villa, having lost three of their previous five games against Villa and picking up just four points along the way.

Villa travel to London after winning nine of their last ten Premier League games with a 2-0 win in April 2024 and 2-2 draw in January, despite the Gunners having won nine of those games.

news from the Arsenal team

Arteta hopes Timber’s late fitness test will be passed. Rice would resump playing midfield if he were to return.

After being replaced at left-back by Myles Lewis-Skelly and resuming his warm-up against Brighton, Calafiori remains a significant doubt.

Important centre-back Gabriel Magalhaes has recovered from an adductor injury and will start for the first time since November in what would be a significant boost for the Gunners.

lineup anticipated:

Raya (goalkeeper), Timber (goalkeeper), Saliba (goalkeeper), Gabriel (goalkeeper), Zubimendi (goalkeeper), Rice (goalkeeper), Odegaard (goalkeeper), Saka (gookeres), and Ezekiel (goalkeeper).

news from the Aston Villa team

Amadou Onana and Lamare Bogarde will replace them with suspended right-back Matty Cash and defensive midfielder Boubacar Kamara after receiving numerous bookings.

While Ivory Coast forward Evann Guessand is participating in the Africa Cup of Nations, defensive players Tyrone Mings, Pau Torres, and midfielder Ross Barkley are still ruled out with injuries.

Watkins will start up front in place of Donyell Malen after coming off the bench to score a brace against Chelsea.

lineup anticipated:

A DR Congo fan known as “Lumumba” reportedly stood motionless in the stands throughout the entire AFCON game against Senegal, resembling a statue of the nation’s leader of independence.

After weeks of fighting along their disputed border, Thailand and Cambodia have put an end to fighting. Assed Baig of Al Jazeera reports that both militaries are still in place and that civilians have been displaced by the conflict are waiting to see if the truce will endure beyond the first 72 hours.

Beijing claims that the two days of military exercises that simulate a blockade of key ports have been conducted in Taiwan. Taiwan retaliated by launching fighter jets and mobilizing troops.

Donald Trump’s escalation of threats to Venezuela may be easy to overlook as one of his arbitrary whims, but it is too closely linked to major conflicts to be seen as a regional issue with little impact on the rest of the world.

Along with Ukraine, Venezuela is becoming a bargaining chip for the world’s superpowers.

Check out Antony Beevor’s history of World War II’s opening chapters to see how seemingly disparate conflagrations on different continents, such as the Nanjing massacre in China, Mussolini’s invasion of Abyssinia, and the Spanish Civil War, contributed to the preparation for the most heinous carnage in modern history.

Although there is always a threat of a third world war, this does not mean that the world is necessarily sluggish. A global agreement seems more likely than a global war as long as Trump and his Russian counterpart Vladimir Putin, the two main players in Russian-US relations, are currently more likely to engage in mutually beneficial transactions than engage in confrontation.

Venezuela, a country with the largest proven oil reserves in the world and a political ally of China, Iran, and Russia, which the US-led West views as its archrivals, still matter internationally. Russia is the one of these three that finds itself in Venezuela’s most delicate situation. The Kremlin faces risks as a result of the US-driven escalation, but it also has the potential to gain.

The unforeseen thaw that occurred in US-Russia relations during Trump’s second term as president is what caused most of it.

The Kremlin has seen the US as a shaky partner before becoming a full-fledged adversary with an ambition to divide and rule in the former Soviet Union neighbourhood since Putin’s ascent to power in 2000.

When Trump arrived in the White House at the beginning of 2025, things abruptly returned to a kind of partnership. Although it still provides crucial intelligence to the Ukrainian army, the US almost stopped providing aid to Ukraine and assumed a more neutral position. Russia was even removed from the list of “direct threats” in the most recent iteration of the US’s National Security Strategy.

Putin has good reasons to believe that the conflict is coming to an end on his terms as the peace negotiations with Ukraine start. The most punishing of Russian demands in negotiations has recently been suggested by Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy that he would consent to his army’s withdrawal from the north of the Donbass region. In 2025, the Kremlin’s position on negotiating terms was reaffirmed by him as one more concession he suggested he might be open to.

In the meantime, the countries of the European Union have failed to reach an agreement regarding the loan, which could provide Ukraine with stable funding in the upcoming years. The story demonstrated how far the European commitment to Ukraine has come, despite the fact that a less expensive option was found in incessant negotiations.

Given all of the above, it’s unlikely that the Kremlin would want to ruin a challenging but ultimately fruitful working relationship with Trump’s administration over something as distant and unrelated to Venezuela’s core interests.

Russia would indeed produce all the desired sounds. Vassily Nebenzia, the US’s UN envoy, claimed that the US is “aggressive neocolonialism” by threatening Venezuela. He claimed that it is “cynically imposing its order” while “trying to maintain global dominance and the right to exploit other countries’ riches with impunity.”

This is in reference to Venezuela’s openly demanding that its oil companies, which dominated the nation’s oil industry prior to its gradual nationalization in the 1970s, be allowed to do business there.

Russian oil companies have joint ventures with PDVSA, a Venezuelan oil monopoly, despite their turbulent history, not least as a result of US sanctions, but it appears that Russia does not have any interest in Venezuela’s riches.

However, Russia would not give up on rescuing a welcoming government in Latin America. Venezuela’s support will always be in line with the US’s pressure on Russia in relation to Ukraine.

The Kremlin won’t want to see the government fall, but Nicolas Maduro’s might. Russia has a history of adapting to new political regimes, which have taken their place as allies in developed nations affected by the US’s obsession with regime change. Syria and Iraq both serve as good examples.

There is a component of cynical political calculation as well. The US’s military action on Venezuela could potentially result in more geopolitical benefits than the losses.

Because it would give Russia and the US the same moral weight when it talks about the Ukraine war. Why can’t Russia follow the US’s example in its own country if it can impose its will through military hostility in what Americans refer to as “their backyard”? In the eyes of many, particularly in the Global South, the US aggression in Venezuela would support Russian aggression in Ukraine. It would encourage further divisions between the US and Europe and, ironically, foster polarization within the US itself.

The situation would be ideal for the Kremlin if the Trump administration continued to pursue its irrational desire to occupy Greenland in addition to Venezuela. It might even open doors for a resemblance to the EU-led region of Europe, which is currently its biggest global enemy.

The Russians view themselves as the mainstays of the old order and the most conservatives in terms of foreign policy. They view the US-led West as a revisionist force that helped to reverse the post-World War II order, and they also see the Ukrainian conflict as a means of reversing that revision.

Let us negotiate a new order, one in which the US can go as it pleases in its Western hemisphere and Russia can control the ex-Soviet neighbourhood, if there is no return to the old order, which the West is to blame.

The US would likely become bogged down in Venezuela for years, which would be ideal. However, Maduro is also alright if he falls quickly. The outcome might appear to be a transaction, with a US-friendly Venezuela in exchange for the Ukrainian conflict terminating in accordance with Russian terms.