At A Glance
Aston Villa are looking to win their opening five league games for the first time in the club’s history when they face Leeds United at Villa Park on Friday night.
Ross Barkley’s injury time winner against Leicester City on Sunday night extended the Villans’ winning start to the campaign.
The match against Leeds is also a chance for second place Villa to win five consecutive Premier League games for the first time since April 1998 when the club was managed by John Gregory.
Premier League new boys Leeds have adapted well to life back in the top-flight after a 16-year absence.
Two wins, a draw and two defeats has seen Marcelo Bielsa’s team climb to tenth in the table.
Last time out, The Whites went down 1-0 against Wolves at Elland Road.
Standout Stats
This is the first Premier League encounter between Aston Villa and Leeds United since February 2004, when Villa won 2-0 with goals from Juan Pablo Angel and Ronny Johnsen.
Aston Villa are unbeaten in their last eight Premier League games (W6 D2), the longest current run of all sides in the competition. They’ve earned 20 points in these eight games, more than they had in their previous 26 matches in the competition (19).
Ross Barkley has scored in both of his Premier League appearances for Aston Villa so far – the last player to score in each of his first three top-flight games for the club was Dion Dublin in November 1998.
The Last Meeting
Aston Villa’s club record ten-game winning run came to an end in a feisty 1-1 draw at Elland Road in April 2019.
Controversy reigned in the 72nd minute when Tyler Roberts looked set to kick the ball out of play as Jonathan Kodjia lay stricken on the turf.
However, he played on and the move resulted in Mateusz Klich scoring the opening goal. Anwar El Ghazi saw red as tensions boiled over in the aftermath before Marcelo Bielsa ordered his players to allow Albert Adomah a free path to goal to equalise.
Team News
In his pre-match press conference, Dean Smith said he expects Keinan Davis to be available for selection after injury.
Kortney Hause, Wesley and Tom Heaton remain sidelined for the game.
For Leeds, England international Kalvin Phillips suffered a shoulder injury against Wolves on Monday night and will be out of contention for the next few weeks.
Liam Cooper is also a doubt for United, who will be without Diego Llorente, Adam Forshaw and Gaetano Berardi.
The Boss
"I’ve seen all five of their games so far and they’re very competitive. They’ll win more games than they lose this season – that’s for sure. I don’t see them being in a relegation scrap at the end of the season. They’re the fittest team in the league and every team that has played against them so far has actually got their top numbers during that game. There’s a certain work ethic there but there’s also a lot of quality there as well."
Dean Smith