2020-21 Premier League: Week 12 – Wolves vs Aston Villa

Wolves lock horns with Aston Villa in a mouth-watering West-Midlands derby in a blockbuster Premier League clash. 

Should West Ham lose on Friday evening, Wolves could climb as high as sixth with victory, whereas Villa can leapfrog their local hosts with a win and move up to seventh.

 

Team News

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Wolves have no fresh injury concerns as Raul Jimenez (head) and Jonny (knee) remain absent.

Aston Villa expect to have Kortney Hause (groin), Keinan Davis (ankle), Bjorn Engels (Achilles), Trezeguet (head) and Frederic Guilbert (muscle) back if pass late fitness tests.

Ross Barkley (hamstring) is still sidelined until next week and joins Tom Heaton plus Wesley on sidelines as the pair continue to build up their match fitness.

 

Stat Attack

• Wolves have lost just one of their last six league meetings against Aston Villa (W4, D1, L1).
• Aston Villa have won two of their last five trips to Molineux (W2, L3).
• In 10 previous Premier League meetings, Villa are yet to have a player red carded against Wolves.
• Ollie Watkins is the only Villa player to have scored more than one headed goal so far this season, having produced two headers.
• No Wolves player has had more touches on the ball this season than Nelson Semedo, who has made 683 touches in nine league appearances.

 

Prediction

Wolves were impressive in terms of their attacking threat at Liverpool last weekend but ultimately lacked that penetrating edge needed to beat the Reds, who ultimately took a clinical win through small defensive errors from the visitors.

Villa meanwhile have had two weeks off after their clash against Newcastle was postponed so it is difficult to predict what we will see here from the Villains in terms of performance, although they definitely would of been working on their clinical finishing after a wasted display at West Ham.

Either way, this should be a cracking derby clash given how strong Villa have been compared to next season and a draw wouldn’t be a bad result between two decent teams here.

Prediction: Wolves 1-1 Aston Villa

Result: Wolves 0-1 Aston Villa