Aston Villa welcome the Blades to Villa Park on Friday evening, where the hosts will look to go top of the Premier League. This fixture has been close over the last few meetings, with the last two results being 1-0 home wins.
Aston Villa
Unai Emery has exceeded all expectations since joining Aston Villa, and the Spaniard has taken them to a whole new level this season. After 17 matches, the Villans are third in the Premier League with 38 points, having won 12 matches and being just one point off Arsenal in first.
They’ve been superb at both ends of the field this season, scoring the second most goals in the league, 37, and conceding just 1.24. However, they’ve only kept a clean sheet in 24% of their games!
Last time out, the Villa were lucky to pick up a 2-1 victory as they travelled to Brentford at the weekend. The visitors were struggling, and it took a Ben Mee red card in the second half for Villa to equalise.
Sheffield United
Since the arrival of Chris Wilder three games ago, Sheffield United have been defeated 2-0 by Chelsea and Liverpool and have beat Brentford 1-0. Despite those results, the Blades are still at the bottom of the Premier League with just eight points from 17 games.
In short, they’ve conceded the most goals in the league this season, 43, while scoring the least, 12. Avoiding relegation looks like an extremely tough task, even with so many games left.
Last time out, Wilder’s team suffered a 2-0 defeat at Stamford Bridge. The visitors frustrated Chelsea into the break, but quality prevailed in the second half.
Verdict?
Villa have won all eight of their home games this season and have the best home record in the league, whereas Sheffield United have lost seven of their eight away matches, winning none.
Aston Villa will comfortably win this tie and go to the top of the league. The quality in the squad should be too much and they have an inevitability about them this season.
The final prediction is Aston Villa 3-0 Sheffield United.
