Allo allo! In the first of two Premier League games today it's the battle of the As as Arsenal host Aston Villa. There's an hour to go until kickoff, so the team news is just reaching us. Let's get straight to it...

ARSENAL XI: Ospina; Bellerin, Mertesacker, Koscielny, Monreal; Coquelin, Ramsey; Walcott, Cazorla, Ozil; Giroud
Subs: Szczesny, Gibbs, Gabriel, Chambers, Flamini, Rosicky, Akpom

Arsene Wenger makes five changes to the side that dealt with Brighton & Hove Albion in the FA Cup fourth round last weekend. David Ospina, Hector Bellerin, Per Mertesacker, Francis Coquelin and Santi Cazorla replace Wojciech Szczesny, Calum Chambers, Kieran Gibbs, Mathieu Flamini and Tomas Rosicky.

VILLA XI: Guzan; Hutton, Okore, Clark, Richardson; Sanchez, Delph, Cleverley; Weimann, Gil; Benteke
Subs: Given, Baker, Bacuna, Sinclair, Agbonlahor, Westwood, Cissokho

Paul Lambert, meanwhile, makes just two alterations from Villa's FA Cup win over Championship leaders Bournemouth a week ago. Brad Guzan is back in goal for Shay Given, while in midfield Fabian Delph returns in place of Leandro Bacuna.

Okey doke, let's take a closer look at the two XIs. Starting with Arsenal, the big news is that superstar forward Alexis Sanchez misses out with a hamstring injury. The Chilean has been so key for the Gunners since joining last summer from Barcelona, but Arsenal (and my fantasy football team!) will have to make do without him today.

There will be plenty of pressure on Olivier Giroud in attack with Sanchez and Danny Welbeck missing with injuries. Other Gunners out of action are Jack Wilshere, Mikel Arteta and Mathieu Debuchy. Tomas Rosicky will feel unlucky not to be playing given how he controlled and ran the game at Brighton a week ago. I saw the Czech maestro compared to Ronaldinho for what he did at The Amex.

Rosicky is on the bench and he's joined by new boy Gabriel Paulista, who could make his Gunners debut after joining from Villarreal.

How about Villa, then? It's a tough ask for them today and one thing that they're struggling terribly with is GOALS. Lambert's men have gone eight hours and 42 minutes in the league without a goal since Christian Benteke's sweet strike against Manchester United on December 20.

They did bag two last week in the Cup, though, and they were both excellent goals. New signing Carles Gil opened the scoring with his first Villa goal and what a gorgeous strike it was too as he cut in from the right and curled home with his stronger left peg. The second was a well-worked team move that was coolly finished off by Andreas Weimann.

Villa centre-back Jores Okore is hoping that the win over Bournemouth will give Villa confidence. He says: "Hopefully we can get a goal or two again today after the FA Cup last week."

I haven't mentioned this yet, but you might have seen Scott Sinclair's name on the Villa bench. He is hoping to make his debut for his new club after a loan switch from Manchester City until the end of the season. The winger will wear the number nine for Villa.

REFEREE WATCH! The man in charge today is Anthony Taylor, who has shown three red cards in his last five games.

Earlier this week myself and Matt Law sat down on the Sports Mole Sofa to preview this game at the Emirates and you can watch below to see what we had to say.

So both of these sides advanced to the fifth round of the FA Cup last weekend, with holders Arsenal drawing Middlesbrough, who stunned Manchester City, at home, while Villa also got a home tie against the Premier League's bottom side Leicester City. But how did they get on last time in the league?

For Arsenal, it was arguably one of their best performances in recent years as they restricted Manchester City at the Etihad and came away with a 2-0 win against one of the sides above them in the table. Villa have lost their last two games in a row, going down 2-0 at home to Liverpool last time.

That win over City two weeks ago was a huge boost for Arsenal's top-four hopes. Win here and they will go level on points with fourth-placed Southampton ahead of their home match against Swansea City later this afternoon. Villa start the day 16th in the table, three points above the drop zone. A win will see them climb to 13th, while a draw will take them up one place.

Villa fans, do not click this link! It's our attack stats page and shows just how poor Villa's attack has been this season. They have just 11 goals in 22 goals - an average of half a goal a game. Currently on a run of five games without a goal, the Villans have never gone six league games in a row without scoring in their history. Pressure!

Gabriel has taken the number-five shirt vacated by Thomas Vermaelen.

STAT! Arsenal have scored five goals in their last two Premier League games against Villa, all between the 32nd and 36th minutes. Villa will need to watch out after half-hour mark.

At Villa Park in the reverse fixture on September 20, the Gunners scored three times in four minutes to cruise to three points.

Interestingly, Arsenal are going for three straight league wins for the first time this season. Many will fancy them against a Villa side who can't score, but the visitors will remember their last trip to the Emirates on the opening day of last season. They won 3-1 on August 17, 2013.

In fact, Chelsea and Manchester United (12 each) are the only visiting teams to have earned more points at the Emirates than Aston Villa (11) in the Premier League. The Villans have only lost three of their eight games at the Gunners' new stadium (W3 D2 L3).

PREDICTION TIME: Right then, just 10 minutes until kickoff in North London. It really is hard to look past Arsenal today and I'm going to have to go for a 2-0 home win. Walcott and Giroud to score.

As for you guys, 80.1% of you have also backed the Gunners on our readers' poll. Just 7.7% fancy a draw, with 12.2% going for a surprise Villa win.

Lambert revealed a few minutes ago to Sky Sports News that he wasn't really considering playing Sinclair from the start. The winger hasn't played much football in the last few months. His last Premier League start was on December 21, 2013 - well over a year ago.

Here come the two sides out of the tunnel. Arsenal are in their red and white home colours, while Villa don their away kit of white tops and claret shorts.

One thing Villa must not do is start slowly. Arsenal were in front inside the opening couple of minutes at Brighton last week and will certainly be hoping for a fast start.

KICKOFF! The hosts get us underway.

Villa are almost caught out inside the opening minute as Ramsey finds the run of Walcott, who was just onside. You would expect the pacey Englishman to streak clear on goal, but Okore tracks back well and takes the ball away just as Walcott was about to shoot.

Villa have the first proper shot on goal as Delph lines one up from distance. If Villa's shots are like that all day, you can't see them breaking their scoring drought - Ospina watches the tame effort wide.

SHOT! Ramsey takes aim from 20 yards and this is a much sweeter hit. Guzan doesn't look too worried and he judges the shot well as it whizzes past the near post.

Lambert won't like this one bit as Arsenal open Villa up far too easily. Again the visitors' backline is a little skewed and Mertesacker's hacked clearance from defence is sublimely flicked through to Giroud by Ozil. The Frenchman has so much space and plenty of time to run through on goal, but he almost messes it up as the ball gets caught under his feet before he digs out a clever chipped finish.

Almost two for the Gunners as they stream forward in numbers. Giroud would have had another clear sight of goal had Walcott not intercepted a through-ball intended for him. Still, Arsenal have plenty forward in attack but they make a mess of the situation as Giroud and Ramsey try a stupid one-two. We've heard that about Arsenal before, eh?

That assist from Ozil really was something, but Villa can only look at themselves as that's twice in the opening 10 minutes they failed to play offside. Walcott failed to take advantage inside the opening minute, but Giroud punished them.

Villa win a rather lucky corner as Sanchez's speculative effort from 30 yards takes a deflection and spins out. It results in nothing, though, as Okore fouls Koscielny when challenging for a header.

Surprisingly, Villa have actually enjoyed more of the ball in the opening quarter of an hour with 56% possession. They've done very little with it.

OFF THE LINE! A deep cross from the left is met by Koscielny and his looping header back across the face of goal is begging to be nodded home by Mertesacker, but Hutton is alert and flicks away from danger.

The Frenchman has as many league goals as the entire Villa starting XI.

After impressing with that beautiful goal a week ago, we might need to file a missing person's report for Villa new boy Gil. He's barely touched the ball so far.

By the way, Giroud now has five goals in his last six Premier League games. He's been doing ever so well since returning earlier than expected from a broken leg.

This is Gil's first Premier League start and he's just been on the end of a proper 'Welcome to England' challenge by Coquelin. Fair play to the Spaniard, though, he got up with little fuss.

OFF THE POST! Cazorla, who was so good in the Gunners' last league game against City, is a couple of centimetres from doubling the home side's lead as he bravely beats Okore to a bouncing ball before having it returned to him by Giroud. The diminutive Spaniard surges forward to the edge of the box and looks for the bottom corner with his left foot. Guzan is beaten, but the ball pings back off the foot of the post.

So Villa still lead the possession count, but they've managed just two weak efforts at goal. Arsenal have been much more dangerous and the gulf in class between the two is very clear.

DISALLOWED! Ozil thinks that he's doubled Arsenal lead after his shot is too hot for Guzan to handle, but the flag was up. Cazorla played the German in and he was just past the last man. So, so close.

Villa look dangerous for the first time as Gil neatly turns away from his man in midfield before firing a pass into the run of Weimann. The Austrian can't bring it down, but Benteke is close by and his stab goalwards is blocked by Mertesacker.

SHOT! Arsenal have arguably overplayed on several occasions when they've been in promising positions today, but not this time as Ramsey lets fly from 20 yards and has his effort beaten out by Guzan.

Groans from the Arsenal fans as Coquelin turns down the chance to shoot and instead play an outside-of-the-boot pass out to Walcott, who is flagged offside. Arsenal have dominated, but as long as it's just 1-0, Villa are still in it.

Here's a snap from Getty Images of Giroud dinking Arsenal into the lead.

CHANCE! Huge chance for Villa to break their scoring drought as Gil whips over an excellent cross that Weimann meets on the six-yard line. He doesn't make the cleanest connection, but it's still on target and Ospina makes a good save.

Arsenal streak forward down the other end and you'd expect Walcott to go clear on goal as Giroud feeds him through the middle. He can't quite get up to full speed, though, and Richardson makes a sliding tackle to clear.

Just the one minute of added time at the end of the first half.

Coquelin escapes a booking after bundling over Gil and Villa now have one last chance with a free kick in a good position. Gil to take...

Villa get a corner out of it, but neither set piece comes to anything. That'll be that for the opening half.

It's Arsenal who lead at the break then thanks to Giroud's neat eighth-minute finish. The hosts fully deserve their advantage and it's now nine and a half hours without a goal for Villa.

It was a really well-worked goal from Wenger's men as Ozil superbly flicked the ball into Giroud's path. It looked for a moment as if the Frenchman would waste the chance, but he managed to dig out a clever chip.

From @OptaJoe on Twitter: "2 - Both of Mesut Özil's Premier League assists this season have come against Aston Villa. Favoured."

There's not many teams that have more possession than Arsenal at the Emirates, but Villa have managed that in the opening period. They created very little and didn't have a proper chance until just before the break when Weimann failed to head home Gil's excellent cross.

Arsenal probably should be more than one goal to the good. They've got themselves into promising positions on several occasions, with Cazorla's shot against the post the closest they came to a second.

Click here to see how the Premier League table currently looks. Arsenal are moving up to fifth in the table, level on points with Southampton and one behind Man Utd in third. Villa are staying 16th.

Looking at the two benches, there's very little to excite in an attacking sense for both teams. Arsenal probably have their most attacking lineup on the field already, while Villa can bring on Gabriel Agbonlahor and new boy Sinclair.

KICKOFF! No changes from either side at the break as we get back underway in the capital.

SHOT! Bright start to the second period from Villa as Weimann flicks on for Benteke, whose quick snapshot drifts wide of the target. Not easy, but a decent half-chance for the Belgian.

With Villa now at 570 minutes without a Premier League goal, every passing minute extends a new club record for a scoreless spell. Deary me.

Arsenal have several men in the box waiting for the unchallenged cross from Bellerin, but it's overhit from the right-back and Hutton eases out Ozil at the back stick.

At the other end Richardson curls over a similar cross and this time his teammate does make contact, but it's a weak header from Giroud that Ospina can watch go safely wide.

Cazorla pulls the strings for Arsenal, but again they can be accused of overplaying as Giroud feeds Ozil, who then looks to pull it back for a teammate but there are too many white shirts in the middle to cut it out.

I was just typing that Villa had started the second half in a really encouraging manner, but their task of getting back into the game is made extremely difficult as Ozil rolls home. In a role-reversal from the opening goal, Giroud fed the German and he found the bottom corner from the left of the area.

BOOKING! Clark picks up the first yellow card of the afternoon, his seventh of the season, after clattering into Walcott.

Villa's one and only shot on target so far today was that big, big chance they had shortly before half time when Weimann failed to make good contact on Gil's cross and Ospina saved. How they must be regretting that now.

A decent spell of pressure from the visitors that ends with Benteke's header back across goal being claimed by Ospina. It really doesn't look like Villa will end their drought today.

Game over! Walcott puts the Gunners three up with a sweet sidefoot finish after taking a brilliant first touch from Cazorla's pass that had the Villa defence all over the place. I think Cazorla's pass was actually meant for Giroud, but Walcott took it on and made no mistake from 12 yards.

VILLA SUBS: Lambert makes a double-change and as expected it's Agbonlahor and Sinclair on for Cleverley and Weimann.

Perhaps quite a good game for Sinclair to make his Villa debut. There's very little pressure on him given the scoreline and he can maybe try to express himself.

BOOKING! Gil, who has been the one bright spark for Villa, is cautioned for a trip on Cazorla.

OFF THE BAR! Giroud inches away from his second goal of the game as he meets Cazorla's free kick and flicks it against the top of the crossbar.

ARSENAL SUBS: A pair of changes from the home side as Walcott and Giroud are taken off for Rosicky and youngster Chuba Akpom.

Fine back-post clearance from Bellerin as he hooks clear to deny Sinclair a chance at the back post from Agbonlahor's fierce and dangerous low cross.

Bellerin with another fine tackle to nick the ball away from Sinclair and give Villa a corner. Moments before at the other end Cazorla could have shot, but he tried to feed Akpom and it was cut out by Okore.

PENALTY TO ARSENAL! Guzan upends Akpom in the box.

Cazorla sidefoots it down the middle and Guzan has actually stayed on his feet, so you're expecting him to save it. However, it's too hot to handle and the American can only palm it into the side-netting. Taylor made the right call by pointing to the spot as Akpom beat Guzan to the ball and was clearly brought down.

SUBS: Both sides make their third and final change, with Sanchez replaced by Westwood for Villa and Flamini coming on for Ramsey for Arsenal.

Villa have lost this game, but can they get a consolation in the last 10 minutes to put an end to this terrible scoring drought. Remember, they have never gone six league games without a goal.

SHOT! Gil tries to be the man to break their duck with a 25-yard free kick that he won himself. He gets it up and over the wall, but it hasn't got enough dip on it to come back down.

There's just no fight left in Villa and it must be hard for the visiting players to even bother in this last 10 minutes or so. I wouldn't be surprised if Arsenal grab another. Despite the handsome scoreline, Arsenal are still three goals behind Southampton's goal difference, so won't be going fourth yet.

Clark with a crucial interception to cut out Bellerin's low cross, with Akpom ready and waiting to tap home behind him.

CHANCE! From the resulting corner, Mertesacker shows a rare burst of pace in the box and then produces a nice dinked cross for Akpom. The substitute mistimes his leap slightly and can only muster a looping header that Guzan grabs.

CHANCE! Arsenal are ending the game well and should have a fifth as Ozil nutmegs his man in the box before dilly-dallying for too long when only about eight yards out. The ball drops for Monreal and his swipe at goal is blocked.

Three more minutes of suffering for Villa. I'm really not sure what Lambert can say to them in the dressing room.

CHANCE! Akpom with a pathetic backpass of a shot after being found by Cazorla. Guzan with his easiest save of the game.

Bellerin has really impressed me today and might have just earned man of the match with an excellent sidefooted finish from 20 yards that went in off the far post. Top effort.

SAVE! They might be five down, but Villa almost get a goal as Westwood's piledriver from outside the box is fingertipped away by Ospina. Great stop!

A convincing win for the Gunners then as they win three league games in a row for the first time this season. As for Villa, they fail to score for the sixth league game in a row - a new club record.

If you're only just getting in from a Sunday afternoon walk and want a quick recap of the Gunners' dismantling of Villa, check out our instant match report.

That's all we've got time for on this commentary, thanks for joining SM. I'll leave you with the latest Premier League table and the link you need for the second game of the day as Southampton look to reclaim third spot with victory over Swansea. Head this way for the action from St Mary's.