Fixtures
- Aston Villa Vs. Leicester City – Sat, Jan 4th 2025, 15:00
Aston Villa will look to begin the New Year on a high on Saturday afternoon, when hosting Leicester City in their first game of 2025 (ko 3pm).
The Foxes will visit Villa Park, with Unai Emery’s side looking to go one better than their final game of 2024, a 2-2 draw with Brighton & Hove Albion on Monday.
It is an opportunity for the Villans to record their first league double of the season, having triumphed 2-1 at the King Power Stadium back in August.
They face a side under new management in the form of former Manchester United forward Ruud van Nistelrooy, who took the reins following Steve Cooper’s departure in late November.
Since his appointment, Leicester have taken four points from their six outings, with four-straight defeats leaving them 19th in the Premier League table.
The recent history between the two sides also falls in Villa’s favour, with Saturday’s visitors having won just one of the previous five meetings.
Stats
Having scored five goals in his first six Premier League appearances against Aston Villa, Leicester captain Jamie Vardy hasn’t scored in any of his last six against the Villans in the competition.
In Aston Villa’s 2-2 draw with Brighton, Leon Bailey completed nine dribbles, created three chances and had seven shots, the first player to produce all of those numbers in a Premier League match since November 2014, when Alexis Sánchez did so for Arsenal against Burnley.
Leicester have lost each of their last four Premier League games. They last lost more consecutively in August/September 2022 (6), while they last did so while conceding 2+ goals each time in September/October 2003 (5).
Since losing their opening home Premier League game of this season against Arsenal, Aston Villa are unbeaten in their last nine at Villa Park (W5 D4). The Villans have scored 2+ goals in 12 of their last 17 on home soil.
Leicester have only lost their opening league match in two of the last 16 calendar years (W10 D4), though these two defeats have come in their last two as a Premier League side (2-3 v Tottenham in 2022, 0-1 v Fulham in 2023).
When playing their first league game of a calendar year at home, Aston Villa have lost just one of their last 13 such matches (W6 D6), going down 2-0 against Swansea in 2012. This is the first time Villa are kicking off a year with a home match since 2019 (2-2 vs QPR in the Championship).
Ollie Watkins has been involved in 97 goals in 165 Premier League appearances for Aston Villa (67 goals, 30 assists). Watkins both scored and assisted in a Premier League game for the 10th time in their 2-2 draw with Brighton, the most of any Villa player in the competition.
Both teams have scored in 13 of the 14 Premier League meetings between Aston Villa and Leicester at Villa Park, with the only exception being a 2-0 win for Leicester in December 2001.
Leicester have won three of their last four Premier League away games against Aston Villa (L1), beating them 4-2 in their last such visit in February 2023. They’d only won two of their first 10 at Villa Park in the competition (D5 L3).
Following their 2-1 win at the King Power Stadium in August, Aston Villa are looking to complete their first league double over Leicester since 2003/04.
The Last Meeting
Villa opened up the Premier League season with consecutive away victories, in the last meeting between the two sides at the end of August, triumphing 2-1 at the King Power Stadium.
Amadou Onana’s second goal in his first three games for the club broke the deadlock just before the half-hour, after a well-worked set-piece routine, before Jhon Durán’s looping header gave Unai Emery’s side breathing space just after the hour mark.
Facundo Buonanotte pulled one back for the hosts, who attempted to stage a fightback in the closing stages, but the Villans held on to make it two wins from their first three outings of the campaign.
Team News
Unai Emery has been hit by injuries to his defensive line ahead of the clash. Pau Torres is set for around two months on the sidelines with a broken metatarsal after limping off at Villa Park on Monday, while Diego Carlos has also been ruled out with a foot injury.
Morgan Rogers will be unavailable, the 22-year-old serving a one-match suspension for the accumulation of too many yellow cards against Brighton, while Jhon Durán serves the second of his three-match ban. Jaden Philogene is set to miss the clash through injury, though Matty Cash returns having missed Brighton through suspension.
Leicester will welcome back Jordan Ayew, who missed their defeat to Manchester City last time out through suspension, while Ruud van Nistelrooy is hopeful Wout Faes will be fit to return from an injury which has kept him out of their last two outings.
Goalkeeper Mads Hermansen remains out, however, with Ricardo Pereira, Wilfred Ndidi, Kasey McAteer and Abdul Fatawu all still sidelined.
Managers’ Pre-Match Thoughts
“Now, we are starting the new year focused on our match against Leicester, starting at home at Villa Park. The first part of the season, we are really not thinking we are bad, but could be better, and the league is our priority.” – Unai Emery
“[Unai Emery] is doing an excellent job. There is quality there and they are really building into a big stable club. They will still have a top team [regardless of their injury list], so it is for us to be prepared to face them.” – Ruud van Nistelrooy
