Aston Villa face Wolves at Molineux in the Premier League on Saturday, with Steven Gerrard hoping his side can put a strong run of form together.
Villa have nine games remaining this season, and with a 10-point deficit to cut to Wolves in eighth place, a win this weekend would certainly help us push on to move up the table.
READ MORE: How Villa should line up vs Wolves: Digne boost, Watkins to lead the line
Back-to-back defeats to West Ham and Arsenal prior to the international break were a huge disappointment, but it’s hoped that we can bounce back and put in a positive performance on Saturday to not only boost confidence, but also set the tone for the remainder of the campaign.
Match preview
As noted above, Villa don’t come into this game in the best of form having lost consecutive games, but that came after a run of three wins on the bounce and so Gerrard will be desperate to find some sustained consistency from his team.
Wolves were also on the losing side last time out as they suffered defeat to Leeds Utd at home after a dramatic late comeback from the visitors, while that ended a two-game winning streak for Bruno Lage’s men who had lost their two previous games to that.
With that in mind, it shows that both sides have had troubles with consistency, and they’ll hope that they can get back on track on Saturday as we both have aspirations of pushing on further up the standings.
Team news
Raul Jimenez will play no part for the hosts as he serves a suspension, while Ruben Neves is also ruled out due to injury.
That is a major double blow for Wolves, although Pedro Neto and Nelson Semedo are pushing to return and provide their side with a timely boost.
As for Villa, we welcome back Lucas Digne from injury after he recovered from a hamstring issue to feature for France earlier this week, and so he’ll be looking to replace Ashley Young at left-back in the starting XI.
Elsewhere, Calum Chambers is expected to be fully fit and pushing for a starting role again, while Leon Bailey and Philippe Coutinho will perhaps be assessed in the next 24 hours to determine whether or not they’re ready to go, having travelled a fair distance to feature for Brazil and Jamaica respectively, and they returned later than others.
Both Lage and Gerrard have key decisions to make with regards to their respective starting XIs, but looking at the list of unavailable players, it’s certainly Wolves who will be hit hardest with two hugely influential individuals playing no part.
Wolves vs Villa Match Stats
- Wolves could become the fifth club to win both of their Premier League meetings with Aston Villa this season, after Arsenal, Chelsea, Watford and West Ham United. Coming into this weekend’s matches, only Norwich City and Watford (both five)) have had more teams do the double over them than Villa (four) this term.
- Wolves have won three of their last five Premier League encounters with Aston Villa (D1 L1), as many as they had in their previous 26 top-flight meetings with the Villans (W3 D9 L14).
- Aston Villa won this fixture 1-0 last season. They last won consecutive away matches against Wolverhampton Wanderers in January 2012.
- Twenty-year-old Jacob Ramsey has scored six Premier League goals for Aston Villa this season. Only two men have scored more in a single campaign for the Villans while under 21, those players being Luke Moore in 2005/06 (eight) and Gabriel Agbonlahor in 2006/07 (nine).
- In 13 Premier League meetings, Villa have won five to Wolves’ four, with the latter boasting the better run in more recent times having won three of the last five encounters.
- The home side has failed to win this fixture in the last four clashes
