Arsene Wenger applauds Aston Villa's youthful approach

Arsenal manager Arsene Wenger has drawn parallels between his team and Aston Villa ahead of their Premier League clash at the Emirates Stadium.

The Frenchman believes that the Villans are starting to see results of the investment in youth driven by manager Paul Lambert since he took over from Alex McLeish.

In addition to having one of the youngest squads in the league, not one of the Scot's summer purchases - Aleksandar Tonev, Jores Okore, Antonio Luna, Nicklas Helenius, Leandro Bacuna and Jed Steer - is over the age of 23.

"If you look at our team, from [Wojciech] Szczesny up to [Theo] Walcott up front, we are the only team in the top four that has brought these sorts of players through - players who have started in the Premier League with us," Wenger told the club's official website.

"Nobody else has done it recently but Aston Villa are starting to do that as well now. They plan for the future and, in today's market, it's the only way for them to be successful. For me they have bought well this summer and they had some strength at the end of the season anyway that gave them some consistent results.

"They are a team that is very dangerous on the counter-attack with [Andreas] Weimann and [Gabriel] Agbonlahor and they bought Tonev who looks quite creative. So we need a solid performance to win this game as it's important we start well."

Two goals from Santi Cazorla helped the Gunners to a 2-1 victory in this fixture last season.