Aston Villa vs Ipswich preview
Friday 25 January 2019 10:44, UK
Aston Villa's Jack Grealish is due to return to light training next week after almost two months out.
He remains sidelined for Saturday's visit of Ipswich but could make his return from a shin injury soon. Axel Tuanzebe (foot) and Henri Lansbury (hamstring) are out but Glenn Whelan (shoulder) has returned to full training with Mile Jedinak (calf).
Orjan Nyland (Achilles) is out for the season and Yannick Bolasie's loan deal was cancelled earlier this week and the winger has returned to Everton.
Ipswich forward Jack Lankester has been ruled out for a number of weeks with a back injury. The 19-year-old has scored once for Ipswich, who are bottom of the Sky Bet Championship, this season.
Emyr Huws - who was back in the squad for the win over Rotherham earlier this month - has suffered a setback after a serious knee injury and is sidelined. Midfielder Grant Ward will not return until next season after suffering a serious knee injury last month.
Opta stats
Aston Villa have lost just two of their last 20 league encounters with Ipswich Town (W13 D5), with both defeats coming at Villa Park (0-1 in February 2017 and 0-1 in March 1994).
Ipswich have lost five of their last six away matches against Aston Villa in all competitions (W1).
Ipswich have had a player sent off in each of their last two league matches against Aston Villa, with Tayo Edun seeing red back in August.
Aston Villa's 20 headed league goals so far this season is the most by a Championship side since Ipswich (20), Blackburn (23) and Nottingham Forest (23) all scored 20+ during the 2013-14 campaign.
Ipswich have become just the third side to have no more than 18 points after 28 league games since Championship rebranding in 2004-05, after Peterborough in 2009-10 (18) and Rotherham in 2016-17 (16) - both sides went on to finish bottom.
Aston Villa manager Dean Smith has faced Ipswich boss Paul lambert twice before, both in home matches in charge of Brentford, suffering defeats on each occasion - (0-1 v Blackburn in March 2016 and 1-2 v Wolves in March 2017).
Prutton's prediction
It has turned into an alarming run of form for Aston Villa, who haven't won a game now in any competition since beating Swansea on Boxing Day.
It is starting to look like a hopeless situation for Ipswich, though, and this should be a relatively straightforward home win.
David Prutton predicts: 2-0 (6/1 with Sky Bet)
