Can Sherwood Magic See Villa Beat Stoke?

Aston Villa host Stoke this weekend hoping that new manager Tim Sherwood`s magic will transfer to the Premier League. The Villans, who sit in the final place in the top tier`s relegation zone, beat Leicester City in the FA Cup in the former Tottenham boss`s first game in charge and fans will be hoping that he will oversee their first league win in six.

It could be the perfect opportunity to take down Stoke who have recorded back-to-back 4-1 defeats. The Midlands club lost by this scoreline to reigning Premier League champs Manchester City before an embarrassing FA Cup loss at the hands of Championship side Blackburn Rovers.

Despite this poor form, City are only without a win in two in the League and still sit comfortably mid-table in 10th. A win could see them overtake Swansea who play host to Manchester United, whilst a defeat would see them liable to be usurped by Newcastle who travel to the Sky Blue Manchester outfit.

The last time the two teams met was back in August, Villa able to record a 1-0 victory on the opening day of the season. Andreas Weimann grabbed the only goal of the game just after half-time and is 17/2 (betfair, Betvictor, paddy Power) to break the deadlock once again.

Indeed, his side are the favourites to do the double over the Potters, with a price of 7/4 available at betfred, Coral and Totesport. Thirteen-to-two with a number of bookmakers says that the match will end 1-0 to the Aston club once again though a Stoke win is the next most likely outcome at 2/1 (betfair, Betvictor). Those interested in backing a draw can do so at odds of 9/4. That price is redeemable at both boylesports and sportingbet.

Villa will have to claim the win despite the fact that they have only scored one goal in the league this year. This came from central defender Jores Okore who scored three minutes after half time in the side`s 2-1 defeat at home to Chelsea. His effort ended a run of six top tier games without a goal.

Their goal scoring form in the FA Cup, however, is much better. They put one past Championship strugglers Blackpool in the third round in January before seeing off Bournemouth (2-1) and Leicester last time out. That match again ended 2-1.

These five goals came from five different players though the favourite to score at any time tomorrow is the club`s top scorer of last season Christian Benteke who found the net against Blackpool. The Belgian star can be picked up at 2/1 with Stan James in this regard.

Sherwood`s men have accumulated three points from a maximum of 15 from their last five games at home in the league. In these games they conceded only five goals, the equivalent of one a game. They also kept two clean sheets in this period. Mark Hughes` Stoke are 2/5 (betfred, boylesports) to hit the back of the net under 1.5 times whilst Brad Guzan in the home net is 7/4 (bet365, Spreadex, Stan James) to keep a clean sheet. The Potters away record is positive, tallying up a total of eight points from their last five games despite only scoring four goals. Villa are also in luck in that Bojan Krkic, the provider of two of these four goals, is currently sidelined and will miss the rest of the season through injury.

Peter Crouch scored the other two goals in this period on the road and can be backed at 11/4 (Numerous) to hit the back of the net at any time. Both of his goals in these clashes were the final goals of the matches and he 7/1 (bet365, Betvictor, paddy Power) to be the last goalscorer tomorrow.

Go To bet365

#Ad

20/02/2015     © Frixo 2026