Aston Villa are on the crest of a wave after their amazing start to the Premier League season, and Leeds have it all to do when they do battle on Friday night.
Premier League 2020/21 season
Date: Friday October, 23rd
Kick-off: 20:00
Venue: Villa Park
Aston Villa are still the only team in the topflight to have made a 100% start to the new campaign, and it promises to be even better for Dean Smith’s side.
Following the gutsy 1-0 victory over Leicester City last weekend, Villa have now won their opening four games for the first time since the 1930/31 season, a campaign in which they went on to finish second in the league.
Having picked up points against Sheffield United and City, their latest couple of wins surely had made the rest of the division to sit up and take notice.
Leeds to some degree, had also began their campaign on a bright note but Monday’s narrow loss to Wolves just seemed to have knocked some of the stuffing out of the league’s new boys.
Raul Jimenez struck what proved the winner in West Yorkshire twenty minutes from time, and meant the Whites remain winless in their last two games.
Thus, Marcelo Biesla’s men have won only two of the five league games since their Premier League return, one of which came against fellow promoted side Fulham.
However, they won their most recent visit to this ground, albeit back in 2018, but will find it
much tougher against the Villans who look quite solid and organised at the moment.
Team news
Aston Villa
Smith has no fresh injury concerns to deal with ahead of Friday’s welcome of Leeds, with Wesley and Tom Heaton already both ruled out.
Kortney Hause and Keinan Davis will be assessed, though the pair were unlikely to have started here though.
Leeds
Kalvin Phillips is ruled out after sustaining a shoulder injury in the defeat against Wolves last time.
Liam Cooper, Gaetano Berardi, Adam Forshaw and Diego Llorente all miss out for the visitors.
Match stats
There have been under 2.5 goals in seven of their last eight games between these two sides in all competitions.
Aston Villa have won their last four home matches in the Premier League.
After finding the net in both of his league games this term, Ross Barkley has scored as many goals for Villa as he did in 42 league appearances for Chelsea.
Team form
Aston Villa last five competitive games: WWLWW
Leeds last five competitive games: LWWDL
Betting tips
This game is viewed as one between the early season’s best performers: two sides who have proved they can go toe to toe with the best the top-flight has to offer.
Leeds might have struggled based on the result of their last two outings, and the absence of the crocked Phillips makes it even a more arduos task for them here. However, they will be a hard nut to crack, and I’d think they can get at least a point apiece from here. A price of 5/2 odds for a fultime draw hardly looks bad, and of course represents value for punters.
You can view all other betting markets for this game here
