Prediction & odds for the game: Aston Villa (17/20) v West Brom (31/10) – ST is backing the draw
When: Sunday, 25th April @ 7pm K.O
Where: Villa Park
Aston Villa will attempt to push rivals West Bromwich Albion one step closer to relegation when they meet on Sunday night.
Aston Villa
Aston Villa may not have a whole lot left to play for but at the very least, they’ll want to try and finish in the top half to really give themselves a platform to build off of next season. Dean Smith still feels like the right man for the job but in order to really make some progress, they have to work on their consistency. Plus, there’s the elephant in the room of not knowing exactly what the future has in store for star player Jack Grealish.
Villa’s most recent results aren’t exactly favourable for them but at the same time, we’d say they’ve put up one hell of a fight in two games that they were expected to lose. They were narrowly beaten by Liverpool and the same happened against Manchester City, but the talent within their squad is still quite evident.
West Brom
West Bromwich Albion are probably staring down the barrel of relegation back down to the Championship but in all honesty, many fans were expecting that coming into the campaign. Allardyce has been able to breathe new life into their survival push in recent games but anything other than a win here will surely signal that it’s just a matter of time before their drop to the second tier is confirmed – and from there, that’s where the rebuilding phase needs to commence.
The insane 5-2 and 3-0 wins over Chelsea and Southampton gave Albion supporters hope that another great escape could be on the cards, but as we all know, momentum is a hard thing to maintain in this league. They wound up running into Leicester at precisely the wrong time with Vardy inspiring them to a 3-0 win.
Conclusion
It’s an all-Midlands affair and if fans were able to be inside the ground this weekend, you can bet it would be a feisty one. Alas, that isn’t going to happen, but that doesn’t mean Sam Allardyce doesn’t know how to get the best out of his players in a big game situation. He did it against Wolves and we think he’s going to force his Baggies side to really go for it, but in the end, we’re anticipating a somewhat dull draw that leaves most of us wanting more.
Our official scoreline prediction is going to be 0-0, meaning we’ll obviously stick with the under 2.5 goals marker.
Verdict: Back the draw at odds of 11/4 and the under 2.5 goals scored at odds of 10/11 (All odds are taken from bet365).
[geosnippet id=3620]If you want to bet on Aston Villa vs West Brom then head on over to the betting page. Alternatively, you can check out some of the other available fixtures on the soccer predictions page as the race to the finish in the Premier League continues.