Managerless Aston Villa face a tough test against Brentford at Villa Park.
Victory could lift Villa up to 14th in table if Southampton and Leeds both lose elsewhere, whilst Brentford can go seventh if Fulham fail to win elsewhere.
Team News
Douglas Luiz is available for Aston Villa after his red card in their midweek defeat at Fulham was overturned upon appeal.
Boubacar Kamara (knee), Ludwig Augustinsson (hamstring), Lucas Digne (heel) and Diego Carlos (Achilles) are still ruled out.
Brentford have no fresh injury concerns to report as Thomas Stakosha, Aaron Hickey (both ankle), Pontus Jansson (hamstring) and Christian Norgaard (Achilles) remain absent.
Stat Attack
- Aston Villa failed to win their two previous Premier League meetings against Brentford (D1, L1).
- Brentford drew 1-1 away to Villa in their only previous Premier League clash at Villa Park (D1).
- Brentford’s Ivan Toney was yellow carded in both appearances against Villa last season.
- Villa are looking to avoid a fifth consecutive league game without a win in a single season for the first time since March – April 2022.
- Toney has been booked in each of Brentford’s last three away matches, with two of his yellow cards served in first-half injury time.
Prediction
Having produced a lacklustre performance at Fulham on Thursday evening which led to Steven Gerrard’s departure, Villa certainly need to reset now and find their attacking spark whilst tighting up defensively because they were just too open and deservedly punished.
Brentford meanwhile can be heartened by their brave display against Chelsea but were just frustrated on the attack by excellent goalkeeping from Kepa Arrizabalaga, yet were able to hold their own defensively with great backtracking to cover individual mistakes from teammates when necessary.
It is therefore appropriate that ‘end product’ feels likely to be important here but if Brentford can replicate their midweek performance, albeit with better finishing against a goalkeeper currently let down by poor defending then this could be a comfortable result.
Prediction: Aston Villa 0-2 Brentford
Result: Aston Villa 4-0 Brentford