Aston Villa meet Sunderland in a huge Premier League encounter in the race for European qualification.
Victory or a draw will see Villa remain fourth in the table, whilst Sunderland can leap up to sixth with a win if Everton fail to beat Liverpool.
Team News
Villa have no fresh injury concerns to report following their 4-0 second-leg victory over Bologna at home in their Europa League Quarter-Final.
Alysson (muscle) and Boubacar Kamara (knee) remain absent.
Sunderland will again be without third-choice goalkeeper, Simon Moore due to a fractured hand which kept him out of the 1-0 home win over Tottenham.
Dan Ballard could return from a hamstring injury but Nilson Angulo (unspecified), Jocelin Ta Bi (ankle), Romaine Mundle (hamstring) and Bertrand Traore (knee) will again be sidelined.
When is Kick-Off?
Villa host Sunderland at Villa Park on Sunday 19 April at 14:00pm BST, live on Sky Sports Premier League in the UK.
Stat Attack
- Villa have lost one of their last 11 top-flight meetings against Sunderland (W4, D6, L1).
- Sunderland have avoided defeat in six of their last seven Premier League visits to Villa (W1, D5, L1).
- Two of Villa’s last four home matches against Sunderland have ended in 0-0 draws.
- Villa have scored first in three of their last four league matches at home (W2, D1, L1), having only failed to do so in a 1-1 comeback draw against Leeds in February across those four matches
- Sunderland are looking to claim three consecutive league victories for the first time since October 2024.
Prediction
With an Europa League semi-final spot having been secured with a dominant home demolition of Bologna, Villa now need to keep building on that display because they have a great chance to close in on a top-five finish and Champions League qualification.
Sunderland meanwhile produced a resilient display of absorbing Tottenham’s pressure before clinically executing one of their second-half chances, which stands them in good stead because they will probably need to do the same here to quieten Villa.
Regis Le Bris’ Black Cats also have a big opportunity to surge up the table if they can snatch a win but I do think that both teams will somehow cancel each other out, unless Villa’s intensity drops in the second half and the visitors replicate their comeback victory over Newcastle from last month.
Prediction: Aston Villa 1-1 Sunderland
Result: Aston Villa 4-3 Sunderland
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