Curtis Davies has a unique experience for a Villa player against Arsenal – he’s beaten them.
Now the on-loan Albion defender wants his team-mates to sample the same feeling.
You have to go back to October 15, 2005 for that rare Baggies win, when goals from Kanu and Darren Carter cancelled out Philippe Senderos’s early strike.
“When I came to Villa, games like Arsenal away were what really excited me about coming back in to the Premier League,” he said.
“You want to test yourself against the best players and play in the big stadiums. This is the first time I’ve been to the Emirates and it’s going to be a big occasion.
“We know it’s a big game, but once we cross that white line, everyone will be focused on the job.
“We’ve got to do a job and hopefully we can take something from the game, because we’re in a confident mood.
“I did beat Arsenal when I was at West Brom. We went 1-0 down and it was my fault for the goal, Senderos climbed all over me and scored.
“But after that we put in a solid performance and Darren Carter scored a world class goal.
“In all honesty we didn’t play well football-wise, but we did a job and worked really hard for the three points. I’d say we deserved to win.”
Villa have only lost twice away from home this season, but with Arsenal 22 games unbeaten at the Emirates, Davies has stressed the need for extra hard work.
“People sometimes say against Arsenal ‘let them have the ball and then they’ll let you have the ball’,” he said.
“But I don’t think so. You have to work hard for anything you get against them.
“If they’ve got the ball they know what they’re doing with it and you have to be alert for 90 minutes.
“We know the size of the task, but our away form has been good. Bar Fulham we’ve done very well away from home and we take confidence from that.
“It’s a big task, but we’ve got to go into the game fancying our chances and then take whatever we get tomorrow into that battle for a European place.”
Boss Martin O’Neill believes Villa have the strength in attack and defence in the form of in-form super-sub Marlon Harewood and defender Martin Laursen.
“Marlon is coming on and having massive impact in the games,” he said.
“He knows he must be one of the most unlucky players at the club in that he wants to start.
“But he’s improved immensely and I think he’s now holding the ball up as well as he has at any time in his career.
“And Laursen has been absolutely terrific. He’s playing fantastically well and if he can steer clear of serious injury, he can still have a great end to the season because he’s been immense for us.”
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