Aston Villa are on the road once again, looking to extend their unbeaten run to six games as they head to the King Power Stadium to face a managerless Leicester City side. Here’s the latest heading into another pivotal Premier League fixture…
THE BUILD UP
Unai Emery’s Villa side come into this game on the back of a superb, hard-fought victory in West-London as the claret and blue outfit defeated Chelsea by two goals to nil in Saturday’s late kick-off.
Ollie Watkins made history once again when he put his side ahead in the 18th minute, becoming the first Aston Villa player to score in five consecutive away league games. A poorly anticipated header from The Blues’ Marc Cucurella left the number eleven 1-on-1 with Kepa Arrizabalaga and the 27 year-old made no mistake, lifting it over the Spanish ‘keeper for his tenth of the season.
The home side would have their chances and if it wasn’t for Emiliano MartΓnez – who broke a club record himself for most clean sheets after 100 appearances – they would have got something out of the game.
John McGinn would continue his goal-scoring form with Scotland and round off a terrific win in the capital with a tremendous, curling strike in-front of the travelling Villa faithful.
Meanwhile, Leicester enter game-week 30 on a poor run of form and are win-less in the last seven games across all competitions. Their weekend opponents were Roy Hodgson’s Crystal Palace and things looked good just after the break when substitute Ricardo Pereira hit a peach of a strike past Vicente Guaita and into the top corner.
The Eagles would fight back instantly however, and it was an own goal that levelled the game up in the 59th minute. Eberechi Eze’s free-kick struck the back of Danish ‘keeper Daniel Iversen after rebounding off the crossbar, before trickling into the back of the net. Late drama would follow as forward Jean-Philippe Mateta side-footed home the winner in the 94th minute for Palace’s first win of the year and Leicester’s 17th loss of the season.
There are ten places seperating Aston Villa and Leicester City heading into Tuesday night’s fixture, but the last time they met (just two months ago), The Foxes were fantastic and took all three points from Villa Park. Unai Emery and his side will be seeking revenge as they look to continue a late surge for European football, whilst Leicester hope to climb out of the bottom three.
TEAM NEWS
ASTON VILLA
Aston Villa could welcome midfielder Philippe Coutinho back to the match-day squad later this month, but the Brazilian is not expected to return this week for the trip to the King Power on Tuesday night and the home fixture against Nottingham Forest on Saturday.
The number 23 suffered a hamstring injury at the end of February that ruled the former Liverpool and Barcelona man out for approximately a month. Last week, Unai Emery confirmed that the 30-year-old talisman was ‘still injured’ and failed to train with the squad in preparation for the trip to Chelsea.
This mid-week fixture will also come too soon for Polish full-back Matty Cash who is expected to remain out for at least another couple of weeks. The 25-year-old suffered a calf injury whilst on international duty, with Ashley Young replacing the former Forest man in defence against Chelsea.
Boubacar Kamara was withdrawn at half-time at Stamford Bridge on Saturday, but the substitute was deemed to be precautionary, with the Frenchmen’s recent injury in mind and early caution that left the former Marseille man walking a fine line. The 22-year-old is believed to be fit and will be available for the upcoming game.
LEICESTER CITY
As for Leicester, they could be without as many as six players for the game at the King Power tomorrow night. Jonny Evans is considered a doubt, but the Northern Irishman has a chance of making the match-day squad after returning to training last week. Brendan Rodgers confirmed pre-Crystal Palace that the centre-half recovered from a thigh injury and may feature in this week’s games.
Dennis Praet missed the defeat at Selhurst Park last week with a dead leg, but is expected to pass fit for this fixture, whilst midfielder Youri Tielemans will be unavailable for The Foxes due to ankle ligament damage. The Belgian international was ruled out for six weeks at the end of February, but could return for the crucial home fixture against Wolves.
Elsewhere, full-backs James Justin and Ryan Bertrand are sidelined with respective Achilles and knee-related long-term injuries. Centre-half Jannik Vestergaard was exiled from the first-team after questioning former manager Brendan Rodgers’ managerial ability and is not expected to feature again for the East-Midlands side this term.
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A BIT ON LEICESTER
Leicester City are one of many teams under-performing this season. The Foxes have an incredibly talented squad estimated to be worth around Β£400 million (according to Transfermarkt), including the likes of Wout Faes, Wilfried Ndidi and James Maddison. Many of these ‘top’ players simply have not performed to the best of their ability this season and is partly why they find themselves in 19th after 28 games played.
Brendan Rodgers was relieved of his managerial duties yesterday afternoon following the defeat away to Crystal Palace, which made it six games without a victory in the Premier League (5L, 1D).
Leicester have been very loyal to Rodgers over the years (and vice versa) and there were times throughout the season where many felt the former Liverpool and Celtic boss should have been axed. The club’s recent form, during what is considered to be the most critical period of the campaign, has been exceptionally poor and the 2020/21 FA Cup winners find themselves in the middle of an intense relegation battle as a result.
First team coaches Adam Sadler and Mike Stowell will look to pick things up in the dugout at the King Power tomorrow evening, in search of a first win since the 4-1 battering over Tottenham Hotspur in mid-February. Names such as Rafa Benitez and Michael Carrick have been linked with the vacancy, as well as Graham Potter – who was also let go yesterday following the defeat at the hands of Aston Villa.
The 2015/16 Premier League winners may look to emulate Crystal Palace’s strategy and appoint a survival specialist (Roy Hodgson), before bringing a longer-term candidate in over the summer. A return for Nigel Pearson is also a prospect rumoured at the moment.
Can Unai Emery pull off another perfect performance on the road and get revenge upon Leicester City or will a freshened Foxes kick off life without Brendan Rodgers with a victory and put a big three points on the table?
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PREDICTED LINE-UP
Letβs take a look at Liamβs predicted line-up for this upcoming fixtureβ¦
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AUTHOR | LIAM DAVIES
Authorβs UTV PODCAST archive Liam Davies – UTV Podcast | An Aston Villa Blog
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