Aston Villa welcome Crystal Palace to Villa Park in a midtable Premier League encounter.
Victory would see Villa go tenth if Chelsea fail to win elsewhere, whilst Palace can stay 12th with a win and move to within one point of Villa.
Team News
Emiliano Buendia could return to Aston Villa’s starting eleven after he came on and scored as a substitute at Everton, having picked up a knock in training prior to the match.
Robin Olsen (knock) is a doubt but Diego Carlos (Achilles), Philippe Coutinho (muscle) and Jed Steer (Achilles) are ruled out.
Crystal Palace could welcome Wilfried Zaha back from a hamstring injury which has kept him out since late January.
Sam Johnstone (calf) and Nathan Ferguson (fitness) both remain absent.
When is Kick-Off?
Aston Villa host Crystal Palace at Villa Park in a 3pm GMT kick-off on Saturday 4 March, albeit untelevised in the UK.
Stat Attack
- Aston Villa are unbeaten in four of their last six meetings against Crystal Palace (W3, D1, L2).
- Palace are winless in their last five visits to Villa Park (D2, L3).
- Villa’s Ollie Watkins has scored in each of his last two appearances against Palace (D1, L1).
- Villa have lost each of their last two home matches by 4-2 result (L2), with Watkins opening the scoring on both occasions.
- Palace are looking to avoid a ninth consecutive league loss for the first time since a 14-match winless run between December 2015 – April 2016, in which they finished 15th that season.
Prediction
Unbeaten in five of their last eight league games and with Ollie Watkins in form, Villa can come into this game full of confidence after Emiliano Martinez produced a clean sheet in a clinical win at Everton amidst scrappy defending.
Unai Emery however should really look at his attack because their end product was pretty poor in the first half, yet there was enough second-half improvement to clinch a ruthless win after pouncing upon Everton’s sloppy defending.
Palace meanwhile are still yet to win in 2023 but are unbeaten in five of their last six games, although they will be disappointed to have not beaten Liverpool last weekend in a game where they were excellent on attack except in their end product.
Patrick Vieira also will be buoyed by how well-drilled Palace’s defence were with some impressive saves to boot, which suggests that they’re on an upward trend but it is just about finding that win now to kick-start their year properly.
This clash therefore feels tricky to call because Villa have the momentum in terms of form but Palace are improving, so tactics will be key which makes me think we could see a draw here.
Prediction: Aston Villa 1-1 Crystal Palace
Result: Aston Villa 1-0 Crystal Palace
Leave a Reply