It is FA Cup weekend but two sides who bit the dust in the third round have rescheduled their postponed match from earlier in the season which means that we have one game in the Premier League on Saturday evening as Aston Villa take on Newcastle United.
It is fair to say that these two teams are moving in opposite directions at the minute. Villa are on an upturn under Dean Smith whereas Newcastle are starting to flounder badly under former Villans boss Steve Bruce.
Where to watch
The match will be shown live on the Sky Sports Main Event and Sky Sports Premier League channels, with the programme beginning at 7.30pm with the match itself kicking off at 8pm.
Aston Villa
When you consider Aston Villa only avoided relegation on the final day of last season they deserve a huge amount of credit for going into this match sitting one place below the top half of the table, but with games in hand of every side above them in the standings. Clever and quality recruitment in the summer accounts for a lot of their improvement and they have another chance to show their progression in this outing.
While Villa are going well, they actually go into this match without a win in three matches, four if you include the FA Cup loss to Liverpool although that would be harsh given that Covid-19 issues meant they had to put an academy side out. To be fair a draw with Chelsea and away losses to Manchester United and Manchester City were probably what you would expect from this side at this stage but the fact they were more than competitive in all three and offered plenty of good moments in each will give them encouragement.
Newcastle United
Encouragement is something that Newcastle United fans are desperately seeking but finding harder and harder to come by. Their club looks a right mess at the minute and no longer can that just be blamed on the quality available to them because they actually have some decent attacking prospects but clearly have the wrong man in charge to lead them. That is reflected in the fact that they have taken just two points from their last seven matches and lost to Brentford in the Carabao Cup in that time.
Not only are Newcastle not winning football matches but they are not threatening to. They have only scored two goals in their last six games. While they could argue that they are largely being tight at the back, one of the reasons for that is that their goalkeeper has been in stunning form recently. Without him things could be a lot worse but after Burnley’s win at Liverpool on Thursday night, things are beginning to get very nervy for Newcastle. They sit seven points off the drop at present but they look like they are in freefall.
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Team News
Dean Smith hasn’t made many changes to his Villa outfit this season but he’ll be forced into one here because John McGinn is out with suspension. Conor Hourihane has already joined Swansea on loan so it might be Marvelous Nakamba who comes in for him. Kortney Hause is also out with an injury.
Newcastle United livewire Allan Saint-Maximin could be involved for the first time in two months having finally recovered from the long-term symptoms of the Covid-19 virus. The Magpies could be without both Federico Fernandez and Ciaran Clark because of injury.
Betting
Aston Villa will be out to prove a point here I think. They were angered by what happened at the Etihad Stadium on Wednesday night and will be out to make up for that. I don’t see anything but a Villa win here because Newcastle are going nowhere at the minute. I wouldn’t ever say they’ve packed it in but they look like a team who are in a rut that they can’t get out of. In saying that, I’m no fan of 4/7 pokes especially against a team who aren’t going to come out of their own half very often so I’ll go in search of a bit of value.
That comes in the form of Villa to win to nil at 7/4. Aston Villa have won eight matches this season and have only conceded in one of those – to the champions Liverpool. The other seven were all wins to nil against sides much better than Newcastle such as Leicester City, Arsenal, Wolves and possibly Crystal Palace too. Newcastle have just two goals in six matches and look like they’ve forgotten what confidence is let alone lost all of it. It took Man City 80 minutes and an extremely questionable decision to break Villa down on Wednesday night so I’d be surprised if Newcastle are much more successful at it. Villa have kept clean sheets in eight of their 16 matches this season, winning seven of them. The value is that if Villa win here it will be to nil.
Tips
WON – Back Aston Villa to win to nil for a 3/10 stake at 2.75 with Coral
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