Arsenal v Aston Villa: Back Leandro Trossard to strike in 5/1 Bet Builder

• Trossard has 13 goals this season & looks set to start

• Combine fast starts & Gabriel shots for 5/1 BB

• Read about Betfair's 90 minute payout offer here

Arsenal v Aston Villa
Sunday, 16:30
Live on Sky Sports

It's time to unleash Trossard

Surely it's time for Mikel Arteta to give Leandro Trossard a start after scoring off the bench in his last two appearances - and cracking finishes they were too against Brighton and Bayern Munich.

He's becoming such a big-game player for Arteta. Trossard's overall tally of 13 goals this season includes goals against Manchester City in the Community Shield, key goals against Chelsea, Liverpool and Champions League knockout stage strikes vs Porto and Bayern Munich. He answers the call every time from the bench.

He's an excellent finisher - and that is because he is brilliant with both feet. My colleague at Sky Sports, Nick Wright, has written about Trossard's ambidextrous qualities this week - being two-footed makes him such a dangerous player to stop.

Trossard has scored 13 Premier League goals on his left foot and 19 on his right, just highlighting how strong on his on both sides.

I've thought at times over the last 18 months that Arsenal can be quite one dimensional in attack with Bukayo Saka and Gabriel Martinelli liking to chop back inside. Trossard is unpredictable as he can go both ways.

There is some juice in his goalscorer price for this clash with 7/52.40 on offer from the Betfair Sportsbook for him score anytime. He has 0.63 goals per 90 in the Premier League this season which is the ninth best ratio of any player in the league. In his current form, in a game Arsenal are 1/51.20 to win, he's the most likely scorer for the Gunners.

First half goal rush on the cards?

If first halves only counted in the Premier League? Have a guess who would be top?

Arsenal? No. Man City? No. Liverpool then? Nope.

It's Aston Villa, who would be sitting on 54 points and top of the pile if matches finished at 45 minutes. Unai Emery's team are a proactive and brave side.

But so are Arsenal.

Since returning from their Dubai winter break, Arsenal have been synonymous with fast starts. They have scored 20 goals in their 11 first halves - that's seven more goals than any other team - and that statistic is backed up by their expected goals figure in first halves, recorded by Opta (14.78), which is also the most of any team for that period.

And I think Mikel Arteta will want this game firmly in their control by half time in order to spare some energy not only for Bayern Munich on Wednesday but for the title run-in, where a key factor will be squad management.

This makes the first half goal line scream overs to me when assessing both teams. There is 11/102.11 on offer for over 1.5 first half goals which looks overpriced when considering all the evidence.

Shot master Gabriel ready to strike

Finding a way to back the Arsenal set piece machine should prove a profitable strategy. They are scoring 0.61 goals per 90 minutes from set pieces - 19 in total in the Premier League this season - a league high and a ratio which could threaten Liverpools record of 27 set piece goals scored in an entire season in 13/14.

Aston Villa have shown weakness this season at defending corners, having shipped 10 goals from such situations - only Burnley, Nottingham Forest and Sheffield United have conceded more. It's a surprising figure for a team on the cusp of Champions League qualification.

Arsenal will be looking to exploit that and Gabriel is the go-to-guy for punters looking to aboard the Arsenal set piece express.

The Brazilian has had 18 shots in his last 14 games for the Gunners and looks a shrewd way of boosting the odds any potential Bet Builders by adding him to have at least one shot at 8/131.61.

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Follow Lewis Jones' Premier League tips and predictions across Sky Sports each week.