Aston Villa will play hosts to Leicester City at Villa Park on Sunday afternoon as both teams look to go all out to collect the three points from the Midlands derby. The Villans were held to a frustrating 0-0 draw away at Brighton and Hove Albion, so they will be desperate to return to winning ways in the Premier League.
Despite the 0-0 stalemate versus Slavia Praha in the UEFA Europe League last Thursday, the Foxes have been playing well as they managed to beat Liverpool by a convincing 3-1 scoreline last weekend.
Talking Tactics
Dean Smith will once again set his side up in a 4-3-3 formation but could be inclined to make a few changes to the starting XI this weekend. The Villa boss will instruct his players to fight for every loose possession and not let the opposition settle into the game.
Brendan Rodgers will probably go with the 4-2-3-1 formation and is expected to welcome Timothy Castagne back to his first-team for this match. The ex-Liverpool manager will urge his players to press high up the field so that they can win possession quickly and expose Aston Villa’s defensive weaknesses during the game.
Team News
Aston Villa
Matty Cash, Kourtney Hause and Wesley Moraes are all set to miss out on this clash due to injury. Otherwise, Smith should have a fully fit squad to choose from this weekend.
Aston Villa Predicted XI
Emiliano Martinez; Matt Targett, Tyrone Mings, Ezri Konsa, Ahmed El Mohamady; John McGinn, Douglas Luiz, Morgan Sanson; Jack Grealish, Ollie Watkins, Trezeguet
Leicester City
Rodgers has got a lot of injury headaches to cope with as he won’t have Dennis Praet, Ayoze Perez, Wesley Fofana, Wes Morgan, and James Justin available for this game.
Leicester City Predicted XI
Kasper Schmeichel; Timothy Castagne, Caglar Soyuncu, Jonny Evans, Ricardo Pereira; Youri Tielemans, Wilfred Ndidi; Harvey Barnes, James Maddison, Marc Albrighton; Jamie Vardy
Key Men
Aston Villa
Jack Grealish needs to step up and give a good account of himself if he wants to lead his team to another successful result in the Premier League. Both Tyronne Mings and Ezri Konsa will have to be at their best if they are to neutralise the threat of Leicester’s Jamie Vardy throughout the game.
Leicester City
Vardy will carry most of Leicester’s goal-scoring burden in the final third. He might fancy his chances of finding the back of the net after netting one goal versus Liverpool in his last league start. James Maddison and Harvey Barnes could also have a key role to play in determining the fate of this contest.
Odds
The Foxes are 6/5 favourites to win this game, while the draw has been priced at 5/2. The Villans are 11/5 underdogs to emerge victorious on Sunday afternoon.
