Aston Villa welcome Watford to Villa Park in a pivotal match in the race to avoid relegation.
Victory will move Villa out of the relegation zone at the Hornet’s expense, whereas the visitors could climb to 15th with a win as long as other results also go in their favour.
Team news
Embed from Getty ImagesAston Villa have no fresh injury concerns to report from Saturday’s draw at Brighton & Hove Albion.
Keinan Davis (thigh), Jed Steer (Achilles), Tom Heaton, Wesley (both ACL) and John McGinn (ankle) all remain ruled out.
Watford could welcome Kiko Femenia back from a hamstring injury which has sidelined the defender in recent games.
Will Hughes (hip), Tom Cleverley (heel) and Danny Welbeck (thigh) are all nearing returns but aren’t expected to feature until early February.
Sebastian Prodl (calf), Daryl Janmaat (knee) and Ismaila Sarr (hamstring) are ruled out.
Stat Attack
- Aston Villa have lost each of their last three meetings with Watford.
- Troy Deeney has scored five goals for Watford across their last three meetings with Villa, including braces in their latter two clashes of which both came at Vicarage Road.
- Villa have lost just two of nine overall league meetings at home against Watford (W5, D2, L2).
- Both teams have had one player sent off during this Premier League (PL) fixture in seven previous meetings.
- Villa are yet to receive a penalty in this PL fixture after seven previous meetings.
Prediction
This is a crucial game that could go a long way in deciding which of these teams might be relegated, so I wouldn’t expect too many changes despite Watford having a FA Cup replay to come on Thursday.
Both teams however need to attack more than they both did on Saturday but Villa’s home defence needs to improve, otherwise Watford should just about edge this game but a score draw would be a great result for both teams at this stage of the season.
Prediction: Aston Villa 1-1 Watford
Result: Aston Villa 2-1 Watford
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