Match preview for Aston Villa v Tottenham
Aston Villa can ill-afford a slip-up within the race for Champions League soccer after they host a Tottenham aspect more likely to be rotating with one eye on Wednesday’s Europa League remaining.
Friday’s encounter was controversially introduced ahead, together with Chelsea’s conflict with Manchester United, to permit each Tottenham and United extra time to organize for his or her Europa League showpiece in Bilbao subsequent week.
Villa protested the choice, however the decreased quantity of relaxation following final Saturday’s 1-0 win at Bournemouth is just not anticipated to make a lot of a distinction to the result.
Tottenham suffered their twentieth Premier League defeat of the season final Sunday as they had been overwhelmed 2-0 at dwelling by Crystal Palace and, with supervisor Ange Postecoglou focusing extra on gamers avoiding damage forward of a need to move into the Europa League remaining with any type of momentum, Villa shall be extensively anticipated to prevail with little issue.
It’s crucial for Unai Emery’s males that they achieve this.
Villa are degree on factors with Chelsea within the race a top-five spot that may safe Champions League qualification for one more season. They’re two factors behind Manchester Metropolis in fourth, three adrift of Newcastle United in third and 5 behind Arsenal in second with two video games to go.
A defeat and a Chelsea win over United, coupled with a Metropolis victory over Bournemouth on Tuesday, would basically finish their hopes of qualification given their considerably inferior objective distinction to Chelsea, Metropolis and Newcastle.
However Emery’s males have been excellent at dwelling all season. They haven’t misplaced at Villa Park within the Premier League since their first dwelling recreation of the marketing campaign, a 2-0 defeat to Arsenal on August 24.
Tottenham have misplaced 4 of their final 5 away league video games, arresting that slide with a 1-1 draw at West Ham this month and, with Postecoglou’s focus mounted on what he described because the “balancing act” of getting gamers minutes however avoiding damage forward of the ultimate, the chances are high that Villa shall be leapfrogging not less than Metropolis and piling strain on Newcastle.
Crew information for Aston Villa v Tottenham
Villa received’t be at full power by way of the inventive aptitude that has been obvious all through the season for Emery’s aspect.
Jacob Ramsey is suspended having been despatched off at Bournemouth, whereas Marcus Rashford is nursing a hamstring damage.
Youri Tielemans is more likely to miss the remainder of the season due to a muscle damage that stored him out of the Bournemouth recreation.
With James Maddison already dominated out for the season and Dejan Kulusevski becoming a member of him following knee surgical procedure, Postecoglou shall be cautious of risking his huge hitters forward of the United recreation.
Son Heung-min, Richarlison and Brennan Johnson could all begin within the ahead line, however it will be unrealistic to anticipate that trio to play the total 90 minutes.
Lucas Bergvall remains to be coping with an ankle damage within the Tottenham midfield, whereas Postecoglou has a call to make over whether or not to threat Cristian Romero and Micky van de Ven on the again.
Predicted line-ups for Aston Villa v Tottenham
Aston Villa: Martinez, Money, Konsa, Torres, Digne, Kamara, Onana; Rogers, Asensio, McGinn, Watkins
Tottenham: Vicario, Porro, Danso, Davies, Spence, Grey, Bissouma, Sarr, Johnson, Richarlison, Son
Stats for Aston Villa v Tottenham
- Villa have received three of their final 5 Premier League video games towards Tottenham, although they’ve misplaced the final two. That’s extra victories than they achieved of their earlier 21 towards Spurs (W2 D3 L16).
- Solely towards Manchester Metropolis (12) have Tottenham received extra Premier League away video games than they’ve towards Villa (11).Spurs have received eight of their final 9 at Villa Park (L1).
- Villa are unbeaten of their final 20 dwelling video games in all competitions (W14 D6). They final had an extended run between September 1976 and Could 1977 (24).
