Fixtures
- Aston Villa Vs. Southampton – Sat, Dec 7th 2024, 15:00
Aston Villa will look to make it back-to-back Premier League wins on Saturday afternoon, when Southampton travel to Villa Park (ko 3pm).
Unai Emery’s men returned to winning ways in B6 on Wednesday evening, with goals from Morgan Rogers, Ollie Watkins and Matty Cash securing a 3-1 victory over Brentford.
Villa now hope to further close the gap on the Premier League’s top four, in their penultimate home outing before Christmas.
Russell Martin’s Saints have endured a difficult start to their first season back in the top flight, currently sitting bottom of the table on five points, having won just once.
The south coast outfit enter the clash having lose three of their last four, most recently a 5-1 defeat at home to Chelsea in midweek.
The Villans will be looking to maintain a positive recent run of form against Southampton, in which they have won each of the last three meetings between the two sides – scoring six and conceding none – and four of the last five.
Stats
Aston Villa striker Ollie Watkins has been involved in 10 goals in his last five Premier League appearances against promoted clubs, scoring four and assisting six.
Adam Armstrong scored in his first ever away Premier League appearance for Southampton in August 2021 against Everton but has since gone 32 away games without scoring, having 51 shots with an expected goals total of 4.7 without finding the net across these matches.
Aston Villa are unbeaten in all 11 of their Premier League games against promoted sides under Unai Emery (W9 D2), winning five of their six at home under the Spaniard (D1).
Southampton are the only side yet to score a first half away goal in the Premier League this season – the Saints have also had the fewest shots (29) and fewest shots on target (5) in the first 45 minutes of away games of any side this campaign.
Aston Villa are unbeaten in their last six home Premier League matches (W3 D3) and have scored 85 goals in 39 home games under Unai Emery, the fourth-most home goals since Emery’s first game in charge at Villa Park in November 2022.
Southampton are winless in their last 14 Premier League away games (D3 L11), since a 1-0 win at Chelsea in February 2023. Indeed, no side has won fewer points on the road in the top-flight this term than Saints (1).
Aston Villa have won five of their last eight Premier League matches against sides starting the day bottom of the league (D2 L1), though their one defeat in this run was at Villa Park, losing 1-0 to West Ham United in August 2022.
Ollie Watkins has scored five goals in his last six home Premier League appearances and has 36 goals overall at Villa Park – the only Aston Villa player with more home goals than Watkins is Dwight Yorke (37).
Having been unbeaten in six consecutive away league games against Aston Villa between 2013 and 2020, Southampton have lost their last two visits by an aggregate score of 5-0.
Aston Villa have won their last three Premier League games against Southampton (all without conceding), more than they had in their previous 13 against them (W2 D3 L8).
The Last Meeting
Villa secured a third-consecutive away win in the Premier League the last time the two sides met, as Ollie Watkins’ 77th-minute header sealed a 1-0 victory at St Mary’s.
The hosts had their moments in Hampshire, with Kyle Walker-Peters and James Ward-Prowse both seeing goals disallowed either side of the half-time break.
But it was Villa’s number 11 who came up trumps for the visitors, heading home Douglas Luiz’s free-kick 13 minutes from time to send his side home with all three points.
The win secured a second-straight victory for Unai Emery’s side, while ending the hosts’ run of three wins in a row.
Team News
Unai Emery remained coy on team news in his pre-match press conference on Friday, insisting he will make a late call on multiple players following Wednesday’s win over Brentford.
Amadou Onana will face a late fitness test as he closes in on a return from injury, but Jacob Ramsey remains sidelined for the next few weeks.
Russell Martin will be boosted by the return of three key players from suspension at Villa Park, as Taylor Harwood-Bellis, Flynn Downes and Tyler Dibling were all forced to sit out in midweek.
Jack Stephens will however be suspended, having been sent off against Chelsea, while Jan Bednarek and Paul Onuachu are both doubts for the clash.
Managers’ Pre-Match Thoughts
“I know with my experiences, if we are not being organised in our press, we can struggle, playing against a team like Southampton. They are not getting points like they deserve, because they have not a lot of points, but they deserve more, how they are playing, but they are being very, very brave with the ball.” – Unai Emery
“They are a very, very good team. Unai Emery has done an amazing job there. You have to accept and appreciate what they did last season was an incredible achievement.” – Russell Martin
