Aston Villa V Portsmouth – Saturday 19th September

Aston Villa V Portsmouth

Kick-Off: Saturday 19^th September – 15:00 GMT

Venue: Villa Park

Aston Villa

League Position: 6th

Recent Form: LWWW

With three wins on the bounce, Martin O’Neill’s Aston Villa head into this fixture, with a poor Portsmouth side, buoyed by their recent form. Victories over Liverpool, Fulham & bitter rivals Birmingham, will have put their opening day defeat against Wigan firmly to bed. What’s more, all three of their victories have come against very tough opposition, especially Liverpool, a side they beat 3-1 at the home of Liverpool – Anfield. However, although that win is their most creditable result thus far, their victory over local rivals Birmingham City will have pleased the fans a whole lot more.

After losing to Wigan at Villa Park on the opening day of the season, Martin O’Neill will be aiming to avoid such a feat in this game by losing at home for the second time in as many home outings, especially with them facing a terrible Portsmouth team. However, Were Villa to record a victory over Portsmouth, which is very likely, then Villa would have notched up their fourth win in succession and hand them their first back-to-back victories at home this season.

Villa’s biggest asset this season should be down their flanks. The pace and skill of Ashley Young & James Milner now gives Aston Villa added width and a more accurate supply to their powerhouse forwards in the form of Emile Heskey & John Carew. However, with Gabriel Agbonlahor back in the fold, O’Neill will be reluctant to leave the England U21 international (Agbonlahor) out of the starting eleven which, from our point of view, is a negative. Gabriel Agbonlahor has the potential to become a fine striker but he’s still young and far too inconsistent for our liking. The preference would certainly go the way of Emile Heskey and John Carew, despite Agbonlahor becoming the hero of the hour when he scored Villa’s winner last Sunday.

Portsmouth

League Position: 20th

Recent Form: LLLLL

Portsmouth may finally have a confirmed owner but their on pitch troubles haven’t disappeared despite an array of new faces embracing Fratton Park just before the summer window closed. Five of Pompey’s most recent signings started on Saturday, in their 3-2 defeat at home to Bolton, with Paul Hart obviously expecting his squad of misfits to gel instantly. I’m afraid it’s not that simple and it will be a long while before Portsmouth start picking up points, and we don’t expect their recovery to start at Villa Park.

Portsmouth’s defeat at home to Bolton last Saturday was their fifth defeat of the season and fifth on the spin. They have yet to register a single point in their first five outings and that doesn’t look like changing here. David James has already seen his net bulge on ten occasions thus far, whilst Pompey have managed to find the opposing net just three times. That’s just woeful, and one of many reasons why Portsmouth won’t get anything from this game either.

For the time being, Portsmouth will rely solely on individual talent, with Portsmouth not yet an actual team. It will be a while before the players gel, adjust to one another and actually become a well oiled machine capable of grinding out worthy results. They shown signs of all three on Saturday, despite actually losing the game, but that was just the start. Paul Hart will need time but will the new Pompey board give him enough as results will get worse before they get better.

Head-to-Head:

Aston Villa W: 4 Portsmouth W: 2 Draws: 4

Previous meetings between the two sides have generally been very close. However, although Portsmouth have rarely beaten Villa, Pompey are unbeaten in their previous three visits to Villa Park, drawing two games 0-0 and beating Aston Villa 3-1 back in 2008.

Over 2.5 Goals: 4 Under 2.5 Goals: 6

Clashes between the two have rarely produced games filled with goals. Three of the previous five meetings at Villa Park have produced just one goal between them. Last season, both at Villa Park and at Fratton Park, there was just one goal scored and even that goal came away from Villa Park.

Match Verdict: Aston Villa to WIN – 4/9 BlueSquare

Aston Villa are heavily fancied by the bookies to compound the misery of loyal Pompey followers and we can’t see anything different despite the price appeal of Portsmouth. Villa have come into their own in recent games while Pompey are a long way from daylight. A draw would be a massive result here for Portsmouth but it would take a colossal performance from them, or a big lull from Aston Villa, for Portsmouth to steal any points from Villa at Villa Park.

Match Odds:

Aston Villa – 4/9 Bluesquare

Portsmouth – 9/1 Bet365

Draw – 10/3 SkyBet

SoccerBetting Tip: James Milner to Score Anytime – 23/10 Boylesports