Following Spurs model can help Aston Villa score goals against Arsenal

Arsenal may have kept a clean sheet in their Champions League success over Montpellier, but this should not put punters off investing in the 2/1 that Aston Villa breach the Gunners defence at least twice in the next round of Premier League fixtures.

Since beginning the season with three successive clean sheets, Arsenal have only managed to shut out the opposition once in 16 games in all competitions and that was Premier League bottom club QPR.

Prior to facing Schalke, Arsenal had also conceded at least twice in five matches on the bounce and their last two Premier League games have witnessed 13 goals in total.

This will give Villa confidence of breaking through, especially if they set up precisely.

Tottenham were certainly on the front foot and leading against Arsenal until the sending off of Emmanuel Adebayor and a key factor was the way they set up in attack.

Andre Villas-Boas made the bold call of naming two strikers and this was mightily effective, with Adebayor’s physical nature giving him the edge over Laurent Koscielny, while Jermain Defoe’s busyness and sharp movement posed problems for the labouring Per Mertesacker.

Villa’s strikers have similar attributes and if Paul Lambert can get Gabby Agbonlahor running at Mertesacker, this would be dangerous.

Meanwhile, Christian Benteke has similar attributes to Adebayor and if peeling onto Koscielny, this should be the focal point of numerous Villa attacks.

Another reason for expecting Villa goals is that they have been regular scorers in their late kick-offs this season.

In their four fixtures taking place after 5pm, Villa have scored at least twice on each occasion, with two of these games coming against Manchester City and Manchester United.

All odds and markets accurate as of publication’s time and date