Two of this season’s promoted teams collide as Aston Villa host Norwich City at Villa Park, after both teams lost at home last weekend.
A win for Villa could lift them out of the bottom three if Southampton lose to Chelsea, whilst Norwich will move level on points with their hosts if they take victory.
Team news
Embed from Getty ImagesJohn McGinn is ruled out for Aston Villa after fracturing his ankle during Saturday’s defeat to Southampton.
Keinan Davis (thigh) and Tyrone Mings (hamstring) could return but Jed Steer remains out with an Achilles injury.
Norwich have no fresh injury concerns with Ben Godfrey out until early February with a knee injury.
Josip Drmic could return in the new year from a thigh injury but Timm Klose (knee) is a long-term absentee.
Stat Attack
- Villa have won two of their last five meetings with Norwich (W2, L3).
- Both teams have scored in each of their last four clashes.
- Villa’s Jack Grealish and Conor Hourihane are the only two players who weren’t a new signing to have scored in their 5-1 away win at Norwich in October.
- No player from either team has had more shots than Norwich’s Teemu Pukki this season, who has produced 51 shots in 18 appearances.
- Trezeguet has made the most substitute appearances for Villa this season, coming off the bench on seven occasions.
Prediction
Villa definitely need Mings back quickly because they’ve been defensively awful in their last two league games, otherwise the gap to safety could be quite heavy by the time he returns.
Norwich meanwhile are doing everything right in terms of attack but are still poor at the back, as evidenced by Wolves’ two easy winners to turn the game around because the Canaries’ defence had left too much space.
Both teams therefore need to tighten up their rearguards because this will either be a corker or an undercooked turkey, of which I can see Norwich having the edge if they’re clinical enough.
Prediction: Aston Villa 1-2 Norwich City
Result: Aston Villa 1-0 Norwich City