Bottom Club Leicester Hosted By Improving Aston Villa

Aston Villa have risen to 12th place in the Premier League after one goal was enough for them to see off Crystal Palace away from home last time out. Tomorrow afternoon (7th December, 16:00), the West Midlands side host rock bottom Leicester City who have failed to pick up a win since September.

Paul Lambert`s men`s win over Palace ended their run of three successive ties against West Ham, Southampton and Burnley. Whilst the match at the Boleyn Ground ended goalless, Gabby Agbonlahor put the Villans 1-0 up in the first half against Southampton, only for them to concede in the games` final 10 minutes.

Again, Joe Cole was on target in the first half at Turf Moor. His team were, however, once again pegged back in the closing stages as in-form Danny Ings converted a penalty given away by Jores Okore on Lukas Jutkiewicz.

Newly fit Christian Benteke scored the only goal of the match against Neil Warnock`s Palace with the team managing to hold on for their first win since September.

As Andreas Weimann put Villa 1-0 up in the first half in their 2-1 defeat at home to Tottenham, tomorrow`s home team have scored in the first half in four of their last five matches. william hill make Lambert`s side 19/10 to continue this trend by scoring their first goal in the first half an hour.

The Villa Park outfit will, however, be without Spurs` scorer Weimann who must sit out the game following his collection of five yellow cards. The club are still in the midst of an injury nightmare at the back with centre-backs Nathan Baker, Philippe Senderos and Ron Vlaar all out. The team`s clean sheet and victory over Palace has limited the validity of this excuse.

This second-string back four are available at 2/1 (bet365, Spreadex) to keep a clean sheet. Indeed, it is the home club who are the favourites to pick up all three points tomorrow afternoon, with a number of bookmakers pricing Villa up at 7/5 to secure victory. Again, 23/10 is the available price at a number of betting establishments for an unlikely Leicester triumph whilst a draw can be backed at 12/5 at bet365 and Stan James. Nigel Pearson`s City have responded to succumbing to four goalless defeats and a goalless draw by scoring in their last two matches. Unfortunately, these matches have also ended with Leicester on the losing end. Fellow strugglers QPR snatched a 3-2 victory at Loftus road whilst Premier League runners-up Liverpool beat the Foxes 3-1.

Esteban Cambiasso put the away side ahead on the road against QPR before his side went 2-1 down ahead of the half time whistle. Jeffrey Schlupp levelled up a little over 20 minutes after the restart though the on-fire Charlie Austin fired in the winner for the Hoops just over five minutes later.

An unlucky Simon Mignolet own-goal meant that the Foxes also broke the deadlock against Liverpool only for Adam Lallana, Steven Gerrard and Jordan Henderson to hit the target before the final whistle. The bookmakers feel it unlikely that the home side will be able to hit Leicester for another three with Coral offering a massive 5/1 on Aston Villa scoring three or more past Kasper Schmeichel between the Foxes` sticks. The majority of bookmakers are offering 5/6 on both teams grabbing at least one goal in the match-up.

The job of Lambert`s strike force will be made a little easier thanks to the suspension of the East Midlands side`s captain Wes Morgan who has accumulated five bookings already this season.

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06/12/2014     © Frixo 2024