25' The game is paused briefly for a drinks break.
23' Grealish drops deep into his own half to push the hosts forward and he hits a booming switch towards Trezeguet who takes a poor touch, allowing Cedric to take over for the visitors.
21' A string of set-pieces for Arsenal finally ends when Hourihane hammers Ceballos' delivery upfield, forcing the away side to build from the back again. Nevertheless, Arsenal are beginning to slowly turn the pressure up on Villa right now.
19' Cedric forces another corner for the away side and Villa fail to clear their lines from the delivery, forcing Reina into a desperate punch clear that trickles away for another corner.
17' Ceballos plays a crisp throughball down the left-wing towards Aubameyang, but he's immediately descended upon by two Villa defenders and the attacker can only win a throw-in.
15' Arsenal, understandably, look a little jaded after working relentlessly on Saturday to progress to the FA Cup final and they're lacking fluency going forward. Villa, meanwhile, seem happy to adopt a cautious approach and it's resulted in a tight start to this game.
13' For the moment, it looks as though El Mohamady will try and play through any discomfort - but it'll be a situation that the hosts continue to monitor closely.
11' El Mohamady's down with a muscle injury after pulling up without any contact and it looks as though he'll have to be replaced.
10' Arsenal win the game's first corner and they put together a clever routine that allows Torreira to lash a fierce volley from 20 yards that Mings blocks away from danger.
9' Grealish breaks away down the right flank before laying it off to El Mohamady, who swings in a searching cross from deep that McGinn harmlessly heads over the bar.
7' Arsenal enjoy a long spell of patient possession in their own half as they attempt to settle down. So far, this game's been quiet, with neither side willing to commit too many players forward early on.
5' Arsenal work a free-kick short, allowing Cedric to clip in a cross from the touchline that Konsa hooks away from harm at the near post.
4' Aston Villa may be in the bottom three, but their form is showing signs of improving at the vital moment: they've picked up four points from their last two games - twice as many as they'd collected in their previous 10 games combined.
2' The hosts push forward early on and immediately put Arsenal under pressure as an El Mohamady cross is hacked clear by Holding.
1' Aston Villa get the first half underway.
The players are emerging from the tunnel and kick off is just seconds away!
The difficulty of Villa’s task today is underlined by Arsenal’s dominance in this fixture in recent years: the London club have won their last seven meetings in all competitions against Villa by an aggregate score of 23-3.
Arsenal, on the other hand, make five changes following a quick turn around from their FA Cup semi-final on Saturday. Mustafi, Bellerin and Tierney all drop out of the backline, as Arteta refreshes his defence; meanwhile, Pepe is replaced in attack by Nketiah and Xhaka makes way for Torreira.
Aston Villa are unchanged from the side that were agonisingly held by Everton - and Theo Walcott’s late equaliser - last time out.
SUBS: Granit Xhaka, Joseph Willock, Matt Macey, Hector Bellerin, Matthew Smith, Nicolas Pepe, Sokratis, Kieran Tierney, Ainsley Maitland-Niles.
ARSENAL (3-4-3): Emiliano Martinez; Rob Holding, David Luiz, Saed Kolasinac; Cedric Soares, Dani Ceballos, Lucas Torreira, Bukayo Saka; Eddie Nketiah, Alexandre Lacazette, Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang.
SUBS: Jota, Henri Lansbury, Frederic Guilbert, Keinan Davis, Orjan Nyland, Kortney Hause, Marvelous Nakamba, Anwar El Ghazi, Indiana Vassilev.
ASTON VILLA (4-3-3): Pepe Reina; Ahmed El Mohamady, Ezri Konsa Ngoyo, Tyrone Mings, Matt Targett; John McGinn, Conor Hourihane, Douglas Luiz; Trezeguet, Mbwana Samatta, Jack Grealish.
Three points for Arsenal, meanwhile, would ensure that they leap up into eighth spot and within catching distance of rivals, Tottenham, heading into the final day of the season.
Hello and welcome to live commentary of this Premier League fixture between Aston Villa and Arsenal. This one’s all set to be a critical clash for the hosts, who are running out of opportunities to climb out of the relegation zone: with Watford currently trailing to Manchester City, Villa could escape the bottom three with victory.
