Prediction & odds for the game: Aston Villa (21/20) v Norwich (23/10)

When: Thursday, 26th December 2019 @ 3pm K.O

Where: Villa Park

Aston Villa and Norwich City tussle in a relegation six-pointer on Boxing Day as they meet at Villa Park in the Premier League.

Aston Villa

Aston Villa are starting to fall into a little bit of a pattern now regarding their inability to hold on in games and stay in the fight, and it’s leading many to believe that they could be destined for the drop sooner rather than later. Of course, it’s far too early to suggest such a thing, and Dean Smith is going to give his everything to ensure that it doesn’t happen. They’ve got a lot of talent in their squad already, and they could be looking to add to that once the January transfer window arrives.

There’s something to be said for Villa’s ability to dismantle Liverpool’s youngsters in the Carabao Cup, and their ability to hold Manchester United to a 2-2 draw. However, losses to Southampton, Sheffield United, Leicester and Chelsea have still worried quite a few members of the fanbase.

Norwich

Norwich City continue to put in strong performances against most teams that they’re coming up against, but they always seem to fall at the final hurdle and drop points as a result. If they go down then it’s going to be due to their own inability to see games through until the very end, which is why we’re so fascinated by this particular match-up. If they can start brightly, we think they’ll be able to cause the Midlands side some real problems.

Back in late November we saw Norwich put in a great performance to beat Everton 2-0, and they went on to draw 2-2 with Arsenal and 1-1 with Leicester in two really impressive results. They were unable to hold off the surge of Wolverhampton Wanderers and Sheffield United who both beat them, but they’ll be especially disappointed with their defeat to Southampton in early December.

Conclusion

Villa will have the backing of the Villa Park faithful but at this stage, we just don’t think it’s going to mean all too much for them. Norwich are just waiting to really turn it on and absolutely torch one of their upcoming opponents, and we’re expecting this to be that game. They’re hungry for a result and they’ll be able to smell blood in the water with Villa, to the point where we think they could produce what would be highly regarded as their best performance of the season so far.

As such we’re anticipating quite a few goals from both, with the over 2.5 goals threshold being well and truly blown out of the water.

Verdict: Back the away win at odds of 23/10 and the over 2.5 goals scored at odds of 8/15. (All odds are taken from bet365).

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Feel free to bet on Aston Villa v Norwich on the betting page, or take a quick look at the other options available on the soccer predictions page as we close in on Christmas Day.