Aston Villa v Sheffield Wednesday preview
Friday 21 September 2018 11:24, UK
Aston Villa boss Steve Bruce has no new problems as he prepares to take charge of his 100th game for the club against Sheffield Wednesday on Saturday.
Villa emerged unscathed from a relatively routine 2-0 home win against Rotherham in midweek, when new boys Tammy Abraham and Yannick Bolasie were both on the scoresheet. Midfielder Mile Jedinak and defender Axel Tuanzebe are vying for recalls to the Villa side.
Scott Hogan (groin) is back in training but he is not expected to feature against the Owls, while fellow striker Keinan Davis is still recovering from the groin problem he sustained during pre-season.
Sheffield Wednesday striker Steven Fletcher is pushing for a recall. The experienced Scot came on as a substitute and scored during the 2-1 defeat at Nottingham Forest in midweek.
Sam Hutchinson has recovered from a groin injury and resumed full training this week but it sounds like Wednesday boss Jos Luhukay will resist the temptation to bring the midfielder back into the squad this weekend. Fernando Forestieri will complete a three-match suspension, while Kieran Lee (knee) and Joost van Aken remain out injured.
Opta stats
Aston Villa have won seven of their last nine league meetings with Sheffield Wednesday (L2), with their two defeats coming in the last two seasons.
This will be Sheffield Wednesday's 67th league visit to Aston Villa - they have never won back to back away league matches at Villa Park.
Since the start of last season, Aston Villa have lost just one of their 16 home league matches played on Saturday (W9 D6) but that defeat was against Sheffield Wednesday in November 2017.
Sheffield Wednesday have only won once in their last five away league games (D1 L3) and have lost three of their four such matches in 2018-19 so far.
Villa striker Jonathan Kodjia has scored three goals in his last two league matches against Sheffield Wednesday.
Including play-offs, Aston Villa boss Steve Bruce has won nine of his 13 league matches against Sheffield Wednesday (D2 L2), although he did lose to them at Villa Park in this exact fixture last season, a 1-2 defeat.
Prutton's prediction
Aston Villa got a much-needed win against Rotherham on Tuesday to end their run of five games without one in the Championship and Steve Bruce would have been delighted to have seen new boys Tammy Abraham and Yannick Bolasie on the scoresheet.
Sheffield Wednesday's good run of form came to a halt at Nottingham Forest and they face another tricky game here. Narrow home win for me.
David Prutton predicts: 2-1 (15/2 with Sky Bet)
