Aston Villa vs Brighton prediction: ENGLAND: Premier League betting tips on match 2023-09-29 11:30.
After securing a seventh-place finish last season, Aston Villa are again rubbing shoulders with the Premier Leagueâs (PL) elite as they sit pretty in sixth after six rounds of action (W4, L2). A 1-0 victory away to Chelsea was the latest of those league victories, with boss Unai Emery suggesting it was a game his side won largely because they were âgood defensivelyâ as Villa collected just their second league clean sheet of the season.
Defensive resilience has been the bedrock of their success at Villa Park of late too, with their nine-match winning home league run largely down to collecting an impressive six clean sheets along the way. That record will be sternly tested against the PLâs highest scorers ahead of the round in Brighton (18), but itâs a fixture Villa have fond memories of, winning the last four H2Hs, netting exactly twice in each win.
That record wonât bother Brighton, who last weekend became the first club outside of the âbig sixâ since Charlton in 2005/06 to open a campaign with five wins from their first six PL games. The Seagulls secured a third-successive 3-1 league win against Bournemouth, impressively coming from behind to win for the first time in the PL this season, but that didnât appease boss Roberto De Zerbi, who labelled the performance âone of the worstâ since he took charge.
His players will seemingly have their work cut out to please him here, as Villa are interestingly one of just two PL sides to have beaten Brighton twice since De Zerbi took over the reins. But with Brighton one of just three PL sides with a 100% winning record on the road in PL action this season, thereâs perhaps never been a better time than now for the Brighton boss to end his Villa hoodoo.
Players to watch: In a rich vein of form at home, Douglas Luiz is the first Aston Villa player to score in four successive home PL games since Gareth Barry in 2006. No side in the PL has seen more goals come from substitutes than Brightonâs five, with Kaoru Mitoma netting one within 20 seconds of his introduction against Bournemouth!
Hot stat: Both teams have scored in five of the last six Villa-held H2Hs.