Tottenham vs Aston Villa Prediction, Betting Tips & Preview

Preview

Haydn Cunningham Oct 22, 2015 @ 02:12 pm

Mauricio Pochettino’s Tottenham got over an early setback when they conceded after 49 seconds at Bournemouth to win 5-1 with a Harry Kane hat-trick. Aston Villa suffered an 8^th league defeat of the season and Tim Sherwood was relieved of his duties the following day.

Days after going ahead themselves and losing the match to Anderlecht in the Europa League, Tottenham had the delight of experiencing it themselves at Bournemouth on Sunday. After falling behind to the quickest goal of the Premier League this season, Tottenham responded in the best fashion with a 5-1 victory. Harry Kane scored a hat-trick whilst Mousa Dembele and Erik Lamela scored a piece. Kane has now scored 4 goals in his last 4 league games after originally netting just 2 goals in 14 appearances. Tottenham covered every blade of grass against Bournemouth and didn’t give their opponents time and space and gave the possession football they usually dictate with a lot of respect. Dele Alli, Christian Eriksen, Erik Lamela and Eric Dier all covered over 7 miles each.

Aston Villa sacked Tim Sherwood on Sunday after the latest defeat in the league. A total of just 4 points from a possible 30 this season sealed his fate and it will split football fans as to whether it was the correct decision. After guiding them to safety and an FA Cup final last year, Sherwood hasn’t been able to get the same standards out of a new look Villa and despite signing some experienced players in Micah Richards and Joleon Lescott, the club have endured their worst start to a Premier League season. Sherwood took over on Valentine’s Day but the fact is no side has lost more Premier League games (19) than Villa in 2015. The sales of Christian Benteke and Fabian Delph didn’t help Sherwood’s cause and with the loss of Ron Vlaar and Tom Cleverley and Villa will now be on the hunt for a new man to get them out of trouble.

Tottenham remain the only unbeaten team since the opening day of the season where they lost narrowly to Manchester United whilst Aston Villa are winless since winning the opening game of the season against Bournemouth.  Aston Villa have managed just 1 victory over Tottenham in the previous 13 meetings but that did come in the last meeting between the 2 sides in April at White Hart Lane. Tottenham have scored the most goals (7) from set pieces this season with Christian Eriksen scoring 2 direct free kicks and assisting 1 from a corner.

Tottenham were dealt a blow last week with the injury to Nacer Chadli who is set for up to 6 weeks out which is an area Pochettino would’ve preferred to avoid with Heung-Min Son already on the side lines but the South Korean’s return isn’t far off. Whoever awaits the Villa hot seat will be without defensive duo Ciaran Clack and Jores Okore.

Tottenham

Stats: W-4 L-1 D-5

Recent Form - DDDLW

Aston Villa

Stats: W-1 L-8 D-1

Recent Form - WLLLL

Head-to-head record:

Possible Line-ups

Tottenham (4-2-3-1) – Lloris, Walker, Alderweireld, Verthongen, Davies, Alli, Dembele, Dier, Lamela, Eriksen, Kane

Aston Villa (4-2-3-1) – Guzan, Hutton, Lescott, Richards, Amavi, Grealish, Gueye, Traore, Agbonlahor, Sinclair, Gestede

Injury List/Suspended Players

Tottenham – Fazio (inj), Chadli (inj), Son (inj), Carroll (inj)
Aston Villa – Clark (inj), Okore (inj)

Tottenham v Aston Villa Head to Head

League Positions