Burnley V Aston Villa

Kick-off: Saturday 21st November – 15:00 GMT

Venue: Turf Moor

Burnley

League Position: 5th

Recent Form: WDDLW

Unlike some clubs, the International break didn’t come at a particularly good time for the Clarets. Owen Coyle’s side will have taken a lot of confidence out of their two performances just before the break, one being a 2-0 victory over a hapless and struggling Hull City, while the other was an outstanding 3-3 draw with Man City. The latter was of most significance as the point at The City of Manchester stadium provided Burnley with their first away point of the season after previously losing all five of their opening away fixtures.

Owen Coyle will be hoping the two week break has halted the euphoria surrounding Burnley at this moment in time as they will need all the support, omens, possibly even lucky charms, if they are to maintain their superb home form against Aston Villa. Burnley, thus far, have won five of six at Turf Moor, with the 3-1 defeat against Wigan being their only shady result at home to date. They were well overdue a poor result at home and a bad performance but the latter certainly wasn’t the case. They had chances against Wigan and, were they to have taken them, could of still had their 100% home record intact.

From our understanding, Owen Coyle doesn’t have to ponder any fresh injury concerns so it could be the same line up that started in the 3-3 draw with Man City, the same team that actually took a two goal cushion into half-time. However, like all of their away games that had preceded, their defence was carved open far too easily but, come the end, a point was nothing more than they deserved. They were sensational on the day, especially in the attacking third.

Burnley have been very tidy in front of their home fans, with a home record of 5-0-1, a draw yet to be seen at Turf Moor. Their Goals For & Against at home stands at 10-5, so creating and converting goalscoring chances hasn’t been a problem. Steven Fletcher was Owen Coyle’s big summer coup and the Scotland international is slowly but surely finding his feet in a Claret shirt, scoring in two of his last three appearances for Burnley.

Aston Villa

League Position: 4th

Recent Form: LWDWL

Aston Villa will be aiming to continue their surge up the table and their assault on the top four as they travel to Turf Moor, a venue they won’t be too familiar with. Nevertheless, although Burnley do boast a very strong record at Turf Moor, Villa manager, Martin O’Neill, will have every confidence in his squad that they can make it back-to-back wins in the league and add a huge set of three points to their overall points tally. In fact, a win would see Villa break into the top four, albeit possibly on a temporary basis as Tottenham don’t play until 24 hours later.

Consistency has generally been our biggest hunch with Aston Villa, as we already know they have the talent. The 3-1 victory over Liverpool & the 2-1 win over Chelsea just proves they have what it takes to compete at the very highest level, but, with Villa it’s sometimes a case of hoping it’s their day, especially when it comes to playing the smaller fish. The players don’t have any problems getting fired up for the big encounters, or so it would seem this season, but they have come a cropper against sides they really should have beaten.

Villa’s away record, 2-2-2, just reiterates how inconsistent a side Villa are, with Blackburn (2-1), West Ham (2-1), Wolves (1-1) & Everton (1-1), all taking points off Villa on the road. The draw with Everton pretty much went to plan but the remaining three should have all gone the way of Villa. Two of those seen Villa squander leads, the games against Blackburn and Wolves, so perhaps the lack of maturity within the squad is having a negative affect on their overall concentration levels.

With Burnley’s record so strong, this is a game Villa could win, and probably not should. We can easily envisage Villa’s pacey attack causing Burnley all sorts of problems but Mart O’Neill still has defensive issues, with Villa conceding at least one goal in five of their last six outings. Birmingham, a team who boast a dreadful goalscoring record, are the only team Villa have kept a clean sheet against on the road.

Head-to-Head:

Burnley W: 0 Aston Villa W: 0 Draws: 0

With this being Burnley’s maiden season in the Premiership, these two sides have yet to contest a top flight fixture since the Premiership was formed.

Match Verdict:- Aston Villa to WIN – 2.25 SkyBet

Although Burnley’s record at home this season is sublime, it has been exposed by Wigan Athletic, although ironically, Wigan did beat Aston Villa at Villa Park on the opening day of the season. Still, Burnley were fortunate to have a fixture with Hull City straight after the Wigan defeat. The match with Hull enabled them to notch up a straightforward victory, and they did comply. However, Villa are a different match up for them, a more classier outfit, and we expect the Burnley defence to come under heavy fire on Saturday.

Match Odds:

Burnley – 3.50 BetFred

Draw – 3.40 Boylesports

Aston Villa – 2.25 SkyBet

SoccerBetting Value Tip: Gabriel Agbonlahor Anytime Goalscorer – 3.00 Coral

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Full-Time: Burnley 1-1 Aston Villa

Goalscorer(s): Steve Caldwell (Burnley), Emile Heskey (Aston Villa)