Aston Villa vs Blackburn preview
Thursday 28 March 2019 18:09, UK
Tammy Abraham will be fit for Aston Villa's home game against Blackburn.
The striker, who has scored 21 goals this season in the Championship, was an injury concern after returning early from international duty with the England Under-21 squad due to groin and calf problems he sustained during the win against Middlesbrough. However, Abraham has since resumed full training and should start on Saturday as Villa look for a fifth-straight league victory to strengthen their late play-off charge.
More good news for Villa boss Dean Smith sees the return of Axel Tuanzebe and Henri Lansbury. On-loan defender Tuanzebe (foot) has been absent since December, while Lansbury has had a stop-start campaign due to hamstring issues and last featured in January.
Blackburn are also boosted by players returning from injury, with a quartet set to come back into contention. Amari'i Bell, Charlie Mulgrew, Darragh Lenihan and Jack Rodwell all missed the defeat at Sheffield Wednesday.
However, the international break has given all four players the time they needed to recover. Rovers have lost seven of their last nine Championship games and have been beaten on their last five visits to Villa Park in all competitions.
Opta stats
Aston Villa have won their last three home league games against Blackburn, scoring at least two goals on each occasion.
Blackburn have scored at least once in each of their last nine league games against Aston Villa (W4 D2 L3), netting exactly one goal in each of the last six.
Since Dean Smith's first league match in charge on October 20th, only Norwich (62) have scored more Championship goals than Aston Villa (48 goals).
Blackburn are yet to win a Championship match this season when they've fallen behind (W0 D6 L15) and haven't come from behind to win a Championship game since November 2016 against Brentford.
In 26 Championship matches under Dean Smith, Aston Villa have won 69% of their matches when Jack Grealish has featured (W9 D2 L2) compared with just 15% when he hasn't (W2 D7 L4).
19 of Blackburn's last 24 league goals have been scored in the second half of matches - they have netted just one first half goal in their last eight games.
Prutton's prediction
Did the international break come at a bad time for Aston Villa? They were absolutely flying with four wins on the spin before the gap and they hope it won't halt their momentum.
Blackburn are pretty much destined for mid-table, which isn't too bad when you consider they are a newly-promoted side. This is a home win for me.
David Prutton predicts: 3-0 (12/1 with Sky Bet)
