Aston Villa look to go top of Premier League as they welcome Leeds United to Villa Park in Friday Night Football.
Victory will send Villa top whilst Leeds can go third with a win ahead of the weekend’s matches.
Team News
Keinan Davis is set to be available for Villa after a calf injury kept him out of their win at Leicester last weekend.
Kortney Hause (groin), Tom Heaton and Wesley (both knee) are still ruled out.
Leeds will be without Kalvin Phillips due to a shoulder injury and is set to be replaced in midfield by Pascal Struijk if the latter recovers from a knock.
Liam Cooper (groin) is a doubt whilst Gaetano Berardi (knee), Adam Forshaw (hip) and Diego Llorente (groin) are still sidelined.
Stat Attack
- Aston Villa are unbeaten in four of last five meetings against Leeds (W1, D3, L1).
- Leeds have won just one of last five trips to Villa Park (W1, D2, L2).
- No penalties has been awarded in any of 24 previous Premier League meetings between Villa and Leeds.
- Ollie Watkins is the only Villa player to have hit the woodwork this season in their opening four matches.
- No Leeds player has won more aerial battles in their opening five league matches than Robin Koch, who has won 19 aerial fights.
Prediction
Villa have enjoyed an excellent start to the season and showed superb resilience against a difficult Leicester team last weekend, which eventually paid off with a superb strike from Ross Barkley.
Leeds meanwhile put in a solid performance despite losing to Wolves but Phillips’ absence will be a huge issue given his form in midfield, especially when dropping deep which is something that Villa will certainly be targeting with their variety of attacking play.
We should definitely see a cracker here if both teams turn up with their best football but given Villa’s strong performances in recent matches, I can see them having the edge.
Prediction: Aston Villa 2-1 Leeds United
Result: Aston Villa 0-3 Leeds United