Aston Villa vs Southampton

Villa Park sets the stage for a high-stakes Premier League encounter between top-four hopefuls Aston Villa and dead-last Southampton. 

Aston Villa halted a rotten eight-game winless streak in all competitions (D3, L5) with an emphatic 3-1 home triumph against Brentford in midweek Premier League action, maintaining a four-point deficit on fourth-placed Manchester City. Seeking back-to-back league victories for the first time since September, Unai Emery’s charges take on the division’s rock-bottom side amid an inspiring six-match unbeaten league run at Villa Park (W3, D3). Four wins ‘to nil’ from their last five league encounters against Southampton (L1) suggest the Lions are in pole position to gather momentum after a rough spell. However, they would be well-advised not to take anything for granted after only winning once in their last five competitive outings in Birmingham (D3, L1), four of which saw them fail to keep a clean sheet.

In the meantime, Southampton’s woeful start to their returning Premier League campaign hit a new low in midweek as Chelsea thrashed them 5-1 at St Mary’s Stadium, inflicting their third defeat in the last four rounds (D1). Nailed to the bottom of the standings with just one win from 14 matches (D2, L11), Russell Martin’s men languish seven points adrift of safety amid the division’s outright second-worst five-point haul at this stage of the season. Any hope of recovering some ground on 17th-placed Crystal Palace hinges on finding a cure for their travel sickness that has seen the Saints lose six of their eight away league games this season (D1) while netting an average of only 0.57 per match!