Wolverhampton Wanderers FC
Aston Villa FC
Aston Villa FC
Aston Villa get back to business after week off by facing tough Wolves side
Aston Villa to win 1-0
Aston Villa have had some bad luck of late.
On the one hand, they might be pleased to have had almost two weeks to rest and recover after their previous fixture, due to their match against Newcastle being postponed due to Coronavirus.
On the other, they’ll be disappointed at not having a chance to rediscover some kind of winning form, having lost four of their last five matches in the league.
Having sat in a lofty 2nd position after four matches, their poor form has seen them slip to 12th, though they do have two matches in hand on most of the league’s other clubs.
Wolves are in slightly better form, though have only won two of their last five and suffered a heavy defeat last time out to champions Liverpool after many predicted a closer match entirely.
Nevertheless, both teams will be out for revenge and could make for an interesting fixture.
Form Guide (all comps): WLDWL
Reasons to be cheerful:
Looked to be building form before Liverpool loss
Defence has been solid in general
Reasons to be fearful:
Unsure of how they’ll cope without Jimenez
Face a number of tough fixtures in December
Wolves had appeared to be on the up before suffering a heavy loss to Liverpool last weekend, as well as their best player Raul Jimenez the week before to a potentially long-term head injury.
Although it’s never a good time to lose your star striker, December looks a particularly tough month for Wolves as they face a number of top teams including Chelsea, Tottenham and Manchester United before the end of year.
It remains to be seen just how manager Nuno goes about replacing Jimenez in the short team considering how heavily they relied on the Mexican for goals since he joined in 2018. In fact, last weekend was the first match in 84 which he had missed.
They have a solid defence to rely upon – up until last weekend, only Tottenham had conceded fewer goals.
Star Man – Neto
Will need to come up with more goal contributions now Jimenez is out indefinitely
Form Guide (all comps): LLWLL
Reasons to be cheerful
Two games in hand could take them into top four
An extra week of recovery should make them fresh
Reasons to be fearful
One win in five is a big slip in form
Wolves don’t concede many goals
It’s becoming increasing apparent that Aston Villa’s fantastic start to the season, which took them as high as 2nd, was never going to last.
In that time, they have suffered four defeats from their next five fixtures, seeing their league position slip to 12th, although those two games in hand could see their star rise once again.
Like Wolves, they rely on Ollie Watkins as a central focal point up front, but unlike their opponents, other players such as Grealish have been regularly chipping in with goals and assists.
Even though they have lost games recently, they’ve managed to score in all of them and haven’t lost by more than a single goal margin showing that they are pushing teams right to the end.
This could give them the edge this weekend.
Star Man – Jack Grealish
Has 11 goal contributions this season already and scored in their last match against West Ham
Could be a tight affair with both teams preferring to counter
Wolves lack of senior striker could harm their chances
Aston Villa should be sharper having had an extra week’s rest
Both sides will be keen to bounce back with a victory here, especially Villa who have not only lost four out of five, but have had two weeks off thinking about it.
Neither side is at their best when the other is sat back defending deep, and much prefer to play on the counterattack. For this reason, we could see a tight game, at first anyway.
The fact that Wolves do not have a senior striker could well hand the advantage to Villa who have produced good performances in general this season.
Aston Villa to win 1-0
