Too Tight To Tell At Villa Park

Aston Villa v Newcastle gets this weekend’s Premier League action underway at Villa Park on Saturday…

Form
Aston Villa began the season with an impressive 1-0 win away to Stoke on the opening day of the season as Andreas Wisemann scored the only goal of the game just after half-time. The Villans had been made big outsiders for the three points following a summer of questionable transfer activity.

The victory was the club’s first win away from Villa Park since New Year’s Day and only their second in eight visits to the Britannia Stadium.

Newcastle, meanwhile, took some encouragement in defeat to Manchester City on the opening day. Although rarely threatening Joe Hart’s goal directly, the Magpies’ new look side appeared to gel reasonably well.

David Silva scored the opening goal of the game just before the interval and the points were secured against the run of play in when Sergio Aguero netted on the 90 minute mark.

Team News
Despite interest from a number of clubs, Ron Vlaar remains an Aston Villa player to this point and will line up alongside new signing Philippe Senderos. Kieran Richardson and Aly Cissokho will also make their home debuts, while Christian Benteke and Libor Kozak remain long-term injury problems.

Siem de Jong is back in training for Newcastle after missing the opening game of the season with a calf injury. Cheick Tiote and Mapou Yang-Mbiwa both also missed the game but are unlikely to feature here.

Head-to-Head
Villa Park evokes haunting memories for the Geordie faithful after they were relegated here following a 1-0 defeat on the final day of the 2008/09 season. Alan Pardew’s men have, however, won on both of their most recent visits and by a 2-1 scoreline on each occasion.

The most recent meeting between the two sides came at St James’ Park in February of this year and finished 1-0 in favour of Newcastle after a last-ditch Loic Remy goal. Villa haven’t won any of the previous six meetings between the two teams.

Recommended Bets
Home advantage and contrasting fortunes on the opening day of the season mean that Villa start this game as 6/4 favourites, with Newcastle out at 15/8 and the draw priced at 12/5. That looks to be too short a price on Paul Lambert’s side and at the bigger odds Newcastle is the value bet in the Match Odds market.

That said; I’m sure that neither manager would be too disappointed with a draw and so backing Newcastle at Evens in the Draw No Bet market makes more sense.

Both teams have scored in five of the last six Aston Villa-Newcastle games

…and I like the look of the 5/6 about that becoming six from seven after this weekend. A Newcastle win with both teams getting on the scoresheet can be backed at odds of 19/4 and a third consecutive 2-1 win at Villa Park for the Magpies is a 9/1 shot.