Unai Emery: Our biggest test yet, ahead of Arsenal away from home.

The 19th round of the 2025/26 Premier League season will feature a key match as Aston Villa travels to the Emirates Stadium to challenge defending champions Arsenal. Unai Emery has stated that this will be the biggest test his team will face.

In the last round of the Premier League, Aston Villa defeated Chelsea 2-1 thanks to two goals from Watkins, and with an impressive eight-game winning streak, they are now third in the standings with 39 points, three points behind Arsenal, fully demonstrating their ambition for the championship.

In head-to-head records, Aston Villa have won 3, drawn 1 and lost 1 of their last 5 matches against Arsenal, including a 2-1 victory against Arteta's team at home earlier this month, thanks to goals from Matti Cash and Buendia. Therefore, Aston Villa have a psychological advantage.

Aston Villa manager Unai Emery said, "They are competing at the highest level of football, and what you call competition is adapting to your opponent, pressing, dominating in individual duels, and influencing them in set pieces and tactical structures. We played them here three weeks ago, and we showed our ability to respond and compete with them, ultimately winning the game."

"But that was a tough game. We needed to be at our best, both as a team and individually, and show our fighting spirit to win in the final moments. Tomorrow will undoubtedly be a different game. They are playing at the Emirates Stadium, and with the support of their fans, they will be stronger than when they play away. But that's the test we face now. I think they are the favorites for the league title, including how they build their team, how they continuously improve in all aspects, and the depth of their squad."

Emery emphasized, "We will analyze them just like we did three weeks ago and prepare for tomorrow's game. We still have enough players, and we have enough structure in terms of tactics, individual ability, and mentality to deal with them, but without a doubt, this will be the biggest test we face."

They will be highly motivated to face Arsenal.

"I'm very proud of our current performance, everything we've built tactically, mentally, and individually. We strive to make the whole team feel like a family because we spend more time here than with our own families. The new challenge is tomorrow, a very difficult game, perhaps the toughest we've faced so far, because they are the best team."

Emery continued, "However, we are very motivated. We are really motivated to play them away from home at this time, but playing away is always more difficult than playing at home. It is the same for them because we beat them before, and they usually want to show us their strength."

"As for our current position in the standings, we were in this state in the 19th round. We can maintain a positive attitude and confidence, and play with our tactical structure and individual abilities to show confidence on the highest level stage, which is exactly what we want to do."

Furthermore, Emery added, "The intensity of the match we're about to face is similar to our previous game against Chelsea, and in some aspects, the competition will be even fiercer. This is exactly the step we want to take to demonstrate our capabilities, accept our own test, and see how we can use our own structure to face them."