Pundit delivers 'interesting' Aston Villa vs Arsenal prediction

BBC Sport pundit Mark Lawrenson says it will be "interesting" to see how Arsenal will respond in a "new territory" against Aston Villa after the midweek defeat against Liverpool.

The Gunners were unbeaten in their past five games against Wolves (twice), Brentford, Watford and Leicester City before Jurgen Klopp Liverpool's beat them 2-0 at the Emirates Stadium on Wednesday night. Villa, on the other hand, have a major test ahead of them after falling to defeat against West Ham.

Steven Gerrard 's side had been on a fine run beforehand, overcoming Brighton Hove & Albion, Southampton and Leeds United. Those nine points took Villa to ninth place and put them 10 points behind their local rivals Wolverhampton Wanderers.

With focus turned to the Saturday lunchtime kick-off, Lawrenson believes Gerrard's men will not dwell on their defeat against the Hammers - immediately responding on home soil.

"Arsenal played well against Liverpool on Wednesday and the game really swung on Alisson's save from Martin Odegaard after Thiago's poor back-pass," Lawrenson wrote in his BBC Sport column. "I thought Gabriel Martinelli, Granit Xhaka and Thomas Partey all played well for the Gunners, despite their defeat.

"This is a completely different test, though. It will be interesting to see how Mikel Arteta's side respond now their five-game winning run is over, and I think this game will tell us more about them than their display against Liverpool did.

"Arsenal have got some very talented young players, and they also have got some games in hand on the teams below them in the table as they look to hang on to fourth spot, but this is a new territory for most of them and we don't know how they will react.

"Aston Villa had their own good run