Aston Villa meet Brighton & Hove Albion at Villa Park as both teams look to consolidate their top-ten positions.
Victory would lift Villa up to fourth in the table, whilst Brighton can go second with a win although a winning margin of three goals or more would send the Seagulls top.
Team News
Leon Bailey is a major doubt for Villa after he suffered a hamstring injury during their midweek Carabao Cup exit against Everton.
Jacob Ramsey (knock) is a doubt but Tyrone Mings (knee), Tim Iroegbunam (unspecified) and Emiliano Buendia (ACL) remain ruled out.
Brighton have no fresh injury concerns to report after their midweek Carabao Cup exit against Chelsea, as James Milner, Pascal Gross (both muscle), Julio Enciso and Jakub Moder (both knee) remain absent.
When is Kick-Off?
Aston Villa face Brighton at Villa Park in a 12:30pm BST kick-off on Saturday 30 September, live on TNT Sport 1 in the UK.
Stat Attack
- Aston Villa have lost just one of eight previous Premier League meetings against Brighton (W5, D2, L1).
- Brighton have won one of their four Premier League visits to Aston Villa (W1, L3).
- Villa have won each pair of meetings in the last two seasons by the same result – having won by 2-0 in both games in 2021-22 season then by 2-1 results in 22-23 campaign.
- Six of Villa’s seven league goals at home this season have been scored by Douglas Luiz, Jhon Duran and Leon Bailey, who have all netted once in each of their two domestic home matches.
- Out of the top four teams entering this matchweek, no defender has produced more assists so far this season than Brighton’s Pervis Estupinan (3).
Prediction
With their Carabao Cup involvement now over, Aston Villa must focus on their league games because they are in a strong position to build another fight for European qualification, but they have to step up their game after a flat midweek performance.
Brighton meanwhile will be disappointed by their own Carabao Cup exit but they simply weren’t clinical enough at Chelsea, which proved the difference in a game where they played well so I do expect more of the same here from Roberto De Zerbi’s side.
Villa though has been quite a bogey team for Brighton in the Premier League and with both teams likely to bring in fresh players, this could be a close match but Bailey could be a huge loss for the hosts which might just tip the tie towards Brighton.
Prediction: Aston Villa 1-2 Brighton
Result: Aston Villa 6-1 Brighton