Fixtures
- Aston Villa Vs. Brentford – Sat, Apr 6th 2024, 15:00
At A Glance
Aston Villa’s hunt for a top four finish in the Premier League continues when Brentford come to Villa Park on Saturday.
Eleven wins out of 15 league games on home soil has been a big driving force behind Unai Emery’s team, and they’re looking to follow up a 2-0 win against Wolves in B6 last weekend.
That result was followed by a 4-1 loss to Manchester City in midweek, with Jhon Durán on target in the absence of Ollie Watkins.
Brentford are seeking to finish the season strongly and pull clear of danger to ensure a fourth successive season in the Premier League.
The Bees have been doing enough to maintain a six-point gap between themselves and the bottom three despite failing to win any of their last eight top flight tilts.
Thomas Frank’s team have picked up only three points in that span, including a 0-0 draw against Brighton & Hove Albion last time out.
Standout Stats
Brentford have never beaten Aston Villa at Villa Park.
The team scoring first has won just one of the five Premier League meetings between Aston Villa and Brentford (D2, L2).
Brentford are winless in eight league matches (D3, L5), their longest such run in a single season since an 11-game sequence in League One in 2007.
Aston Villa have won 18 of their 31 Premier League fixtures this campaign, as many as they did in the whole of last season.
The Bees have won one of their 11 top flight matches against Aston Villa (D3, L7), a 2-1 home victory in January 2022.
A win would see Villa surpass last season’s final points tally of 61.
However, a defeat would mean back-to-back Premier League losses for the first time this season.
Brentford have dropped 28 Premier League points from a winning position in 2023-24, a league high.
Aston Villa have won all four of their Saturday Premier League fixtures kicking off at 3pm this season, with those matches producing an average of 4.5 goals per game.
The Bees have won just one of their previous 10 top-flight away games and have lost the last four.
The Last Meeting
In December, Villa came from behind late on to see off Brentford in a dramatic clash that saw both sides reduced to 10 men.
Ollie Watkins bagged the winner against his former club in the 85th minute, heading home from close range.
Álex Moreno’s first Premier League goal had drawn the visitors level moments earlier, with the Spaniard nodding in substitute Leon Bailey’s cross.
Keane Lewis-Potter had put the Bees ahead from 12 yards on the stroke of half-time, before Ben Mee saw red for the hosts with just under 20 minutes remaining following a dangerous challenge on Bailey.
A heated encounter also saw Boubacar Kamara sent off in injury time as the Villans secured their first win over the Bees in west London since 1953.
Team News
Positive news for Villa arrived on Friday when Unai Emery confirmed Ollie Watkins and Emi Martínez would return to the squad after injury, joining John McGinn who is available again after suspension.
However, he also delivered some bad news in the form of a season-ending injury for Jacob Ramsey.
Brentford forward Kevin Schade could feature for the first time since September.
Ethan Pinnock, Christian Norgaard and Aaron Hickey remain sidelined, while Ben Mee, Ethan Pinnock and Rico Henry are long-term absentees.
The Boss
“It will be a very, very difficult match. They are being very competitive and we have to try to impose our game plan. To dominate the match is not easy against them because they are, more or less, being aggressive, pressing man-to-man. We will prepare the match trying to get our best performance. The last match we played at home against Wolverhampton, I was a little bit demanding with the team because I think we have to play getting more in everything – tactically, individually, even myself. We won and we were very happy with this match, achieving three points, but tomorrow will be a difficult match if we are not improving some things.” – Unai Emery
