Aston Villa vs Wolves prediction: ENGLAND: Premier League betting tips on match 2024-09-20 14:00.
[p]Aston Villa’s excellent start to the season continued on Tuesday night as they beat Young Boys 3-0 in their first UEFA Champions League/European Cup game since the 1980s – the perfect follow up to last weekend’s come-from-behind 3-2 win over Everton. For a couple of hours at least, VIlla fans could claim to be the best side in Europe once again as they topped the early table![/p]
[p]But it’s been a bittersweet week in the West Midlands as the club mourned the loss of Gary Shaw, one of the heroes of their league and European Cup-winning side of the early 1980s. Manager Unai Emery dedicated their midweek win to Shaw and his family, and tributes will be paid at Villa Park ahead of this clash with rivals Wolves where Villa go in search of back-to-back home league wins for the first time in 2024.[/p]
[p]Older Wolves fans might remember Shaw scoring three times against them back in 1981/82, a season in which Wolves were eventually relegated. Present-day supporters will hope history doesn’t repeat itself, but after squandering the lead to lose 2-1 to Newcastle this is now their worst four-game start since returning to the top-flight in 2018 (D1, L3).[/p]
[p]Perhaps the passion of a local derby can inspire them to better things as they’ve only lost one of the last seven H2Hs (W3, D3). The only defeat in that run was 2-0 here last season, emphasising how the balance of power in the Midlands has shifted with Villa now clearly top of the pile, and it came in the early part of an ongoing sequence of eight winless top-flight road games for Gary O’Neil’s men (D3, L5). [/p]
[p]Key battle: Youri Tielemans scored and assisted in Switzerland on Tuesday, and having also scored for Belgium against Israel, is having a September to remember – each of his last ten club strikes arrived before half-time. Midfield rival Mario Lemina has been in the thick of the action for Wolves, scoring, assisting and picking up a booking across their last two league games – his last four goals each opened the scoring.[/p]
[p]Hot stat: Villa conceded first in four of their last five home Premier League fixtures (W2, D2, L1).[/p]
[p][i]Written by John Pennington[/i][/p]