Aston Villa star sends Arsenal 'worried' message before huge title clash

• Arsenal
• Arsenal News
• Ollie Watkins

Arsenal face a huge clash at home to Aston Villa in the Premier League on Tuesday as both teams continue to contend for English football's top-flight title this season

Aston Villa striker Ollie Watkins believes his side are worrying other teams ahead of Tuesday's huge clash against Arsenal in the Premier League.

Villa recorded a club-record equalling 11th straight win on Saturday after coming from behind to beat Chelsea 2-1 at Stamford Bridge. The victory against Enzo Maresca's team has now perfectly set up their mid-week game in north London against the league-leading Gunners.

Arsenal currently sit two points clear of second-placed Manchester City at the summit after beating Brighton & Hove Albion 2-1 on Saturday, with Villa three points behind in third. The Villans are unlikely to go above Arteta's men for the time being, even if they win on Tuesday, due to the Gunners having a far superior goal difference.

But Watkins has expressed Villa's growing confidence after he scored a brace in west London this weekend. The England international has, however, downplayed his side's chances of winning a surprise league title this season.

Speaking post-match to Sky Sports on Saturday, he said "I feel like teams are worried about us, even if we may not play the prettiest football at times. We're taking each game as it comes and focusing on ourselves really.

"There's a lot of talk about us and people asking if we can win the title, but it's a long way away. We're just focusing on the next game."

Villa boss and former Arsenal manager Unai Emery has also cooled talk of a title charge at B6. When speaking post-match to BBC Sport, the Spaniard insisted such an ambition can only be considered later in the campaign.

He said: "We are playing against Arsenal and our mentality is to compete strongly.

"We are not going to speak about our target in the league until we are in the day 34 because there are teams contending with a huge power to get points like Liverpool, like Chelsea and they are keeping contending more than us to be there.

"Of course we are performing very well, we are in a row winning matches, we are competing fantastic, we competed first half fantastic and we were struggling.

"But the second half more or less like this season we are progressively getting better and being humble."

On if he sees his side in the title race, he added: "No, 38 matches. If it finishes tomorrow then this match against Arsenal is finishing the league. There is still another 20 matches to play."

Arsenal will be looking for revenge when they host Emery's team after suffering a stoppage-time defeat to Villa in December's reverse fixture. The Gunners have also been boosted by the news that both Matty Cash and Boubacar Kamara will be suspended for Tuesday's game at the Emirates Stadium.