Aston Villa vs Crystal Palace

Villa Park is the venue as Aston Villa and Crystal Palace battle it out for a place in the English League Cup Round of 16.

Aston Villa conceded a morale-crushing 96th-minute equalizer in a 1-1 home draw against Bournemouth at the weekend, though they still extended their fantastic unbeaten run to 11 matches in all competitions (W8, D3). That streak includes a hard-earned 2-1 away win against Wycombe in the previous EFL Cup round. Back at Villa Park, where they haven’t lost a competitive fixture since a 2-0 defeat to Arsenal in late August (W4, D2), Unai Emery’s men are odds-on to progress from this tie. Adding to this sentiment, since a 1-0 Premier League loss in 2013, the Lions have gone unbeaten in seven consecutive home meetings with Crystal Palace (W5, D2), recording an eye-catching five clean sheets in that stretch.

Ominously for Crystal Palace, they only scored twice during that seven-game sequence, while it’s been almost three decades since they last bagged 2+ goals at Villa Park in any competition. However, Oliver Glasner’s lads will travel with confidence after a narrow 1-0 home triumph against Tottenham at the weekend got them off the mark in the Premier League this season (W1, D3, L5), halting an underwhelming three-game losing streak. The Eagles have stuttered on the road this term, suffering three defeats on their five competitive travels (W1, D1), with the only win coming in this competition against second-tier QPR.