Aston Villa welcome Leicester City to Villa Park in a tasty Midlands derby in the second of a Super Sunday quadruple header.
Victory will see Villa move to within a point of Merseyside clubs – Liverpool and Everton and potentially regain eighth if Tottenham were to avoid defeat at lunchtime, whereas at least one point will send Leicester second for at least a few hours.
Team News
Matty Cash is ruled out for Aston Villa after suffering a hamstring injury during last weekend’s goalless draw at Brighton.
Wesley (knee) and Kortney Hause (foot) remain sidelined.
Leicester could welcome Timothy Castagne back from a thigh injury which has sidelined the Belgian in recent weeks.
James Justin, Ayoze Perez (both knee), Wes Morgan (back), Wesley Fofana (thigh) and Dennis Praet (hamstring) remain ruled out.
Stat Attack
- Aston Villa have won just one of their last six league meetings against Leicester (W1, D1, L4).
- Leicester are unbeaten in three of their last five league trips to Villa Park (W2, D1, L2).
- Villa have scored in the 90th minute in two of their last three meetings against Leicester in all competitions (W2, L1).
- Three of Leicester’s last five yellow cards in away league games have come from defenders.
- Ollie Watkins has scored once in each of Villa’s last three home matches, with two of his three goals coming before half time.
Prediction
Villa will certainly be looking to bounce back from a fairly under par yet scrappy performance at Brighton last weekend, although they did defend solidly despite Emiliano Martinez saving their bacon on several occasions with great saves.
Leicester meanwhile also found themselves in a scrap as they were held to a goalless draw in the first leg of their Europa League clash at Slavia Prague on Thursday, which could well influence how Brendan Rogers approaches this match in terms of the starting eleven and tactically.
This could therefore be an intriguing encounter because it is tough to know what we should expect here given that Leicester will have one eye on their Europa League return leg on Thursday, so I will plump for a score draw if both can find goal.
Prediction: Aston Villa 1-1 Leicester City
Result: Aston Villa 1-2 Leicester City
Leave a Reply