There are two English Championship matches on Wednesday night and the pick of the games is the meeting between Preston North End and Aston Villa at Deepdale. Aston Villa have a long and rich history, having won the old First Division, now Premier League on 7 occasions and lifted both the European Cup and the European Super Cup. Aston Villa have also won the FA Cup 7 times and the League Cup 5 times but have been struggling in recent years. Having been relegated from the Premier League in 2015/16, Aston Villa endured a terrible season in the Championship, finishing in 13th place. Can they take maximum points from this game and push for promotion back to the top-flight this season?
Champions League – Deepdale, Lancashire – 1st November – 19:45 UK Time
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Draw Best Odd of: 23/10 at Ladbrokes |
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Preston North End
Aston VillaPreston North End Form
The team which stand in Aston Villa’s way on Wednesday night are Preston North End, who have a good football history of their own. However, you must go back to 1960/61 to find the last time they were in the top division. This season, Preston North End started the season promisingly and lost only one of their 10 Championship matches. There were some excellent wins over Cardiff City, Birmingham City and Hull City, the latter two of which were away from home. However, a look at the league table shows Preston North End have only won 5 of their 14 games and have achieved just 1 win in their last 6, which is not good enough to challenge for promotion. Preston North End have scored and conceded in their last 5 Championship games and have seen over 2.5 goals in each of those matches.
Aston Villa Form
Aston Villa start this match in sixth place in the Championship and currently hold the final playoff place. They have tasted defeat only 3 times in 14 games this season but much like their opponents in this game, have found winning games is not easy. Aston Villa have won 6 of their 14 league games, defeating Norwich, Nottingham Forest, Bolton Wanderers and Fulham at home plus Barnsley and Burton Albion away from home. They have lost only 1 of their last 11 Championship games. Away from home, Aston Villa have lost only 1 of their last 5 games, keeping 3 clean sheets in their last 4 but failing to score themselves in their last 2 matches.
Team News
Preston North End will have to make do without Tommy Spurr, Greg Cunningham, Declan Rudd and Tom Clarke who are all injured. They are expected to line up in a 4-2-3-1 formation with Jordan Hugill leading the attack. Aston Villa will make the trip north without the injured duo of Jack Grealish and Andre Green. Gabby Agbonlahor and Henri Lansbury may feature on the bench and Mile Jedinak should continue in the starting XI having come back into the team on the weekend.
Top Betting Tips
If there is one thing these teams have been good at this season, it has been avoiding defeat and while Preston North End have lost their last 2 games, they will be keen to avoid another defeat in this one. The draw is 23/10 with Ladbrokes. Aston Villa have found goals difficult to come by away from home in recent games but should find the Preston North End defence more accommodating than most. The draw and both teams to score is 10/3 with Ladbrokes. Midfielder Albert Adomah has been one of Aston Villa’s biggest threats going forward this season. The Ghanaian has 6 goals in his last 10 games and can be backed at 15/4 with Ladbrokes to score at any time.