Aston Villa to beat Norwich in battle at the bottom

Aston Villa vs Norwich City - 26/12/2019

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Fellow relegation strugglers Aston Villa and Norwich City clash in an important six-pointer at Villa Park on Thursday. Norwich currently sit second from bottom in the table, while Villa are one place above the Canaries.

Both sides were promoted from the Championship last season, but it’s fair to say they’ve struggled to get up to speed with the demands of the Premier League.

Neither club has won any of their last five league games, so the two teams are likely to produce a tense battle on Boxing Day.

Four straight league defeats have seen Aston Villa slip into the bottom three, and they come into this match of the back of a 3-1 loss to Southampton.

Dean Smith’s side have conceded at least two goals in each of their last five league outings, so the manager will be eager to stop his team conceding so many goals.

Villa haven’t found it difficult to score goals this season, but they must tighten up their defence if they are to avoid relegation this season.

Norwich must also stop conceding so many goals if they want to beat the drop, as the Canaries have the league’s joint-worst defensive record.

Daniel Farke’s side have conceded 37 goals in 18 league games this term – an average of just over two goals per game.

Also, just three teams have scored fewer goals than Norwich in the division, so there’s work to do at both ends of the pitch.

Norwich will want to erase any memories of their previous meeting with Villa. Dean Smith’s team hammered Norwich 5-1 earlier in the season, so we could be set for another high-scoring encounter this time around.

However, Norwich did claim three consecutive victories over Villa prior to their early-season thrashing.

John McGinn fractured his ankle in the previous game, so Villa will be without one of their star players on Thursday. Still, Tyrone Mings could make a comeback following a hamstring problem.

As for Norwich, Ben Godfrey is set for a lengthy spell on the sidelines after suffering a knee injury. Timm Klose and Josip Drmic remain long-term absentees.

Villa look set to get the better of Norwich and we’re likely to see plenty of goals on Thursday.

Forebet predicts that the home side will score over 2.5 goals on their way to victory, but Villa’s poor defensive record means Norwich will also get on the scoresheet.

Home team
Away team

Probability %

1X2

Pred

Correct score

Avg. goals

Weather conditions

Coef.

Score

Live
coef.

EPL

Aston Villa Norwich City 26/12/2019 16:00

403327

1

3 - 1

3.28

6°

2.12

2.12 3.77 3.35 -1 -1 1

FT

1 - 0(0 - 0)

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