Good afternoon! Thank you very much for joining Sports Mole for Sunday's early Premier League kickoff as struggling Aston Villa host Arsenal at Villa Park. These two sides are battling things out at opposite ends of the table as we approach the halfway stage of the season, and victory for either would be a big boost in their respective goals for the campaign. Let's start with a look at the two teams...

ASTON VILLA STARTING XI: Guzan; Hutton, Okore, Lescott, Bacuna; Gana, Veretout, Sanchez, Sinclair, Ayew; Gestede

ASTON VILLA SUBS: Bunn, Clark, Westwood, Traore, Gil, Lyden, Grealish

ARSENAL STARTING XI: Cech; Bellerin, Mertesacker, Koscielny, Monreal; Flamini, Ramsey, Walcott, Ozil, Campbell; Giroud

ARSENAL SUBS: Ospina, Debuchy, Gabriel, Gibbs, Chambers, Oxlade-Chamberlain, Iwobi

What can we make of those two sides, then? Well, Remi Garde has been boosted by the news that Rudy Gestede is fit to start today's game despite having been taken off through injury against Southampton last weekend, and he leads the line once again for the hosts. He will be flanked by Sinclair and Jordan Ayew, the latter of whom joins Gestede as Villa's top scorer in the league this season with just three goals.

Indeed, it is an unchanged side for Villa from that draw with Southampton, which means that there is no Micah Richards once again. The defender is still sidelined with a knee injury, but is expected to return sooner rather than later. In the meantime, Okore and Lescott continue to partner up in the centre of defence, with the latter having scored his side's goal in that draw against the Saints last time out.

Behind them is Brad Guzan, who has certainly made some important contributions down the years for Villa but also holds an unenviable record. Since becoming the club's first-choice keeper, the American has conceded a whopping 202 goals - the most of any Premier League keeper in the same timeframe. In fairness, that is as much a reflection on Villa's struggles as a team over that period, but it gives an idea as to why they have consistently been in and around the relegation zone in recent seasons.

Bacuna is another who was forced off against Southampton but he too is fit to start today, along with Hutton on the opposite flank. The midfield trio remains the same, despite the return of Grealish to the squad after he was left out of the last two games due to off-the-field behaviour. He takes his place on the bench today and will be hoping to play some part in this match.

As for Arsenal, they are also unchanged from the memorable midweek win over Olympiacos as Wenger opts to avoid the temptation of resting players following their heroics in Greece. That, of course, means another start for the in-form Mesut Ozil, who has been in sensational form this season. He likes playing against Villa too, having both scored and assisted in his last two appearances against the Villans. The odds on him doing so again today would not be very long.

Another blame bang in form and with a good record against today's opponents is Olivier Giroud, who is one goal away from his 50th Premier League strike for the Gunners. He has scored in each of his last four appearances against Villa in all competitions and has four in his last two games for Arsenal following his hat-trick heroics on Wednesday. That good form stretches even further back to seven goals in eight games, and he is certainly going the right way to answering those who questioned whether he was good enough to lead the line for a title-winning team.

Walcott and Campbell, the latter of whom netted against Sunderland in their most recent Premier League game, will join Ozil in offering support to Giroud, while Ramsey, who was also on the scoresheet against the Black Cats, is expected to sit a little deeper alongside Flamini. There are, of course, a number of notable absentees from that midfield, though, with Cazorla, Sanchez, Wilshere, Coquelin, Rosicky and Arteta all still sidelined through injury.

The back four remains the same from the one that kept a clean sheet in midweek, and should they prevent Villa from scoring today as well then it would be a record-equalling moment for Petr Cech. The veteran has kept 168 Premier League clean sheets during his illustrious career to date and needs just one more to equal the all-time record for a goalkeeper in the Premier League era, currently held by David James.

Villa will be keen to ensure that Cech does not reach the milestone on their own turf, but they will certainly go into this game as fairly hefty underdogs. Remi Garde's arrival has failed to spark an immediate upturn in fortunes for the Villans, and they are getting cut further and further adrift at the bottom of the table as the weeks go by. Eight points now separate them from safety after yesterday's results and, considering they have only picked up six all season so far, it looks to be an increasingly big ask.

Just how much trouble Villa are in can perhaps most accurately be summed up by the fact that this is their worst winless run in the club's 127-year history. Never before, since being formed way back in 1888, have they gone 14 league games without a victory, but that is the situation they find themselves in now. It is not like they have been drawing many of those games either, having shared the spoils on only three occasions and lost the other 11.

That gives them a meagre total of three points from the last 42 on offer since the opening day of the season. That 1-0 victory at Bournemouth remains their solitary maximum-point haul all season, coming back on August 8. There has been a minor improvement under Remi Garde - as points against Manchester City and Southampton will attest to - but they desperately need to starting picking up victories if they want to remain in the relegation battle.

They remain the only side yet to pick up a Premier League home victory this season, picking up a league-low two points in front of their own fans so far - the next worst record is eight points. They are also the lowest scorers at home with just five goals, failing to score in five of their last eight league outings in their own back yard. Their run of eight home league games without a victory is also a joint club record, equalling the totals set in 1921 and 1987.

The one hint of a positive - and Villa fans may need to try pretty hard to see this as a positive - is that they don't tend to get blown away at home. Their results may be poor - four defeats in their last five at home - but they haven't been beaten by more than one goal in front of their own fans since January, a spell of 15 games. That 2-0 defeat to Liverpool is the only time that it has happened in 2015 too.

They will take positives from their last outing as well as they held Southampton to a 1-1 draw, although they may feel that they should have picked up all three points having taken the lead through Joleon Lescott. Oriol Romeu got the equaliser for Southampton, but given the form Villa are in, it was not the worst result in the world. However, it did make it 10 points dropped from winning positions this season, which is the joint worst in the league alongside Newcastle.

A defeat today, as is expected in many quarters, would set Villa on course for another record that they would rather not have. They have currently lost 23 league games in 2015 with four more to come, meaning that they could overtake the Premier League record for games lost in a calendar year. That is held by Ipswich at the moment, who lost 26 times in 1994, but with Newcastle and Norwich to come before the end of the year, Villa will be hoping that those crunch games can provide some points.

Not too many people will be tipping Villa to avoid defeat here, though, and Arsenal should be coming into this match absolutely flying following their Champions League exploits. Things looked bleak for the Gunners after two games of the group stage following defeats to Dinamo Zagreb and Olympiacos, but victory over Bayern Munich kept their qualification hopes on life support. They were blown away in the reverse fixture, but back-to-back 3-0 wins over Zagreb and Olympiacos saw them complete the great escape to qualify.

As I alluded to earlier, Giroud was the hero in midweek with his hat-trick, giving Arsenal the two-goal cushion they needed and then some. They potentially face a difficult test in the last 16 (yet again), with the likes of Real Madrid, Barcelona and Atletico Madrid lying in wait, but there is no doubt that the Gunners would rather be in the hat than joining Manchester United in the Europa League in February.

That Champions League revival seems to have helped things get back on track following Arsenal customary November wobble. The win over Zagreb was their only triumph in five games in November, but they have won two of two so far in December and come into this match unbeaten in four in all competitions. They have, however, only won one of their last four Premier League games, and failure to do so today would see them lose more ground in the title race following Man City's dramatic win yesterday.

Victory, however, would lift the Gunners above City and Leicester and back to the top of the table nearing the halfway point of the season. Whether they stay there when gameweek 16 is finished will depend on Leicester's result against Chelsea on Monday night, but they have a good chance to put the pressure on the Foxes here today. They have already seen Manchester United drop points this weekend and, with Liverpool and Spurs also still to play, they could steal a march on many of their prospective title rivals here.

All the stats certainly point to an Arsenal win here. Only Man United and Tottenham have conceded fewer goals than the Gunners this season, with their 13 being the same number that Villa's league-worst attack have scored. The Gunners have kept six clean sheets from their 15 games this season, although the last of those arrived in October. At the other end of the pitch, only three teams have scored more than Arsenal, while only three teams have conceded more than Villa.

It also pitches the worst home record in the league against one of the best away records. Only Leicester have amassed more points on the road than Arsenal this season, and the Foxes are also the only team to have scored more goals away from home. Stretching back to last season they have won 10 and lost just two of their last 14 Premier League away games, although their last victory on their travels did come back in October. They are winless in two since then, losing to West Bromwich Albion and drawing with Norwich.

Perhaps the biggest contrast between the two teams can be seen in their record throughout 2015, though. While Villa could still break that record for number of league games lost in a calendar year, Arsenal have accrued 72 points so far in 2015 - the highest tally of any team in the league. They face a huge match at home to Man City next weekend, with Southampton and Bournemouth still to come after that, so they will be confident of increasing that total further still before the new year.

PREDICTION: We're 10 minutes from kickoff at Villa Park, which means that it is time for a prediction! Everything points to an Arsenal victory today, and I can't see anything but the Gunners coming away with all three points to be honest. As mentioned earlier, Villa are rarely soundly beaten in front of their own fans, so it is unlikely to be a rout, but I'm going for a 2-0 Arsenal win.

We were, unsurprisingly, in agreement over the fate of this match on the Sports Mole Premier League preview podcast this week, with neither of us giving Villa much of a chance. Listen to what we had to say below: