Premier League: Aston Villa vs Hull City match preview
A look ahead to Saturday’s Premier League match at Villa Park
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Your support makes all the difference.For the last couple of seasons boss Paul Lambert has hand to fend off accusations that his side is too young and inexperienced. You never win anything with kids. It seems he has listened to the criticism and thanks to the veteran central defence of Ron Vlaar and Philippe Senderos, Aston Villa have bucked an unwelcome trend. They have kept back-to-back clean sheets to kick off this campaign, in sharp contrast to the last term when they shipped an alarming amount of goals.
Hull now have a veteran centre-back of their own having signed Michael Dawson from Tottenham for £3.5m. His services will be particularly useful over the coming weeks as James Chester serves a suspension for the red card he picked up against Stoke on Saturday.
Both sides were in action in midweek, Villa being one of a string of top-tier teams to fall to weaker opposition having rotated heavily. Hull failed to qualify in their bid for Europa League football having been beaten on away goals. It remains to be seen how boss Steve Bruce manages his squad.
The long-term absence of Christian Benteke means that Andreas Weimann will need to rediscover the goalscoring touch he showed in the opening-day win at Stoke. With sides somewhat lacking in firepower, a goalless draw wouldn’t be much of a surprise.
KICK-OFF: Sunday, 1.30pm
PAST MEETINGS…
Aston Villa 3 (Westwood, Weimann 2) Hull 1 (Bowery og), Premier League, May 2014
Hull 0 Aston Villa 0, Premier League, October 2013
Hull 0 Aston Villa 2 (Agbonlahor, Milner), Premier League, April 2010
STATS…
Hull haven’t beaten Villa since 1987
Villa have scored 21 goals in their last 6 home matches against Hull, an average of 3.5 per game.
Last Thursday’s first-leg defeat to Lokeren was Hull’s first since the end of last season, having gone unbeaten through pre-season and the opening two Premier League games.
Ahmed Elmohamady was the only player to be ever-present last season in the league for Hull, starting all 38 matches.
ODDS…
Villa to win: 2.2
Hull to win: 3.1
Draw: 3.5
TV:
Highlights on BBC1 at 10.25pm.
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