Southampton Looking To Pile More Misery On Villa

Aston Villa will have to try and halt their rapid decline on Monday (24th November, 20:00) with a victory at home to high-flyers Southampton. The Midlands side have not clocked a victory since their four game unbeaten run came to an end back in September. What`s more, Villa have scored as many goals in their last seven matches as they have earned points, one.

Sitting in 16th place and with 11 points from the same number of games, Paul Lambert`s Villans ended a six match losing streak with a goalless draw away at West Ham United. Their only goal came at home to Tottenham, Andreas Weimann`s strike seeing the Villa Park outfit lead for all of 84 minutes before two late goals from Nacer Chadli and Harry Kane.

Prior to this upset, Villa failed to hit the back of the net in defeats against Arsenal and Chelsea (consecutive 3-0 drubbings), Manchester City (2-0), Everton (3-0) and Queens Park Rangers (2-0).

As a result, Southampton are 9/5 with Betvictor and betway to do what they have done in their last two matches and grab a win to nil. They can also be picked up at 5/4 (Spreadex) to keep a clean sheet.

Ronald Koeman`s Saints are currently on a four game unbeaten run in the league and have reached the last eight of the Capital One Cup thanks to a last gasp 3-2 victory over Stoke City. Their Premier League streak, kicked off in style with an 8-0 win over lowly Sunderland, has seen them cement their place in second position in the top tier of English football, only four points off leaders Chelsea and four points out of reach of last season`s champions Manchester City.

Three Sunderland own-goals, a brace from Graziano Pelle and successful efforts from Jack Cork, Dusan Tadic and Victor Wanyama all helped in the Hampshire side`s humiliation of Sunderland. Sadio Mane and Wanyama grabbed the only goals in the team`s successive 1-0 victories over Stoke and Hull in the league before the Saints put two past Leicester City last time out.

Two second half goals from substitute Shane Long means that Southampton haven`t dropped a point since their defeat away at Tottenham on 5th October.

Such contrasting form gives an indication of the bookmakers` current odds. Koeman`s men are the 4/5 favourites with a number of bookies, whilst the best price on a home win is 43/10 with Betbright. The chances of Villa securing back-to-back ties has been priced at 11/4 with bet365, boylesports and Coral.

The job of selection will be difficult for those in the home dugout with the absences of a number of key defensive faces. A knee injury is expected to keep Nathan Baker out for a couple of months whilst talismanic captain Ron Vlaar is sidelined with a calf complaint.

Also out is Swiss centre-half Philippe Senderos (also calf) meaning that Jores Okore will make his first start of the season besides Ciaran Clark.

To make matters worse, the suspension of star striker Christian Benteke, who picked up a red card against Spurs, will see him join the injured Libor Kozak (leg) on the sidelines. It will be up to Gabby Agbonlahor to lead the line, the Englishman 21/2 (Betvictor, Bwin) to break the deadlock. Leading scorer Weimann is available at the same odds at the same bookmakers in the same market.

The good news for Southampton regarding their own injury doubts is that Tadic has recovered from a knock to be in contention for a start. The game may come to early for Steven Davis who has a hamstring strain whilst James Ward-Prowse (foot) and Jay Rodriguez (cruciate ligament) are still long-term absentees.

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22/11/2014     © Frixo 2024