At A Glance
Brendan Rodgers, armed with an impeccable league record at Villa Park, brings his Leicester City side to B6 on Sunday.
Steven Gerrard, who spent three seasons as a player under Rodgers at Liverpool, will be looking to end his opposite number’s six-game winning run at Aston Villa in the Premier League.
The two managers have gone head-to-head previously in the heat of the Old Firm Derby, with Rodgers’ Celtic taking the honours on their first meeting before Gerrard’s Rangers gained revenge.
Leicester, the FA Cup holders, have been the model of consistency in picking up consecutive fifth place finishes in the league, but they arrive in Birmingham having stuttered of late.
One win and five points from their last five matches has seen the Foxes slide to mid table, three points above Villa.
After picking up a pair of victories to begin his time as head coach, Gerrard suffered his first defeat at the hands of Manchester City in midweek.
Standout Stats
Aston Villa have lost their last two home league games against Leicester – only once have they lost three in a row against them at Villa Park, doing so between 1936 and 1954.
Leicester have won five of their last seven league games against Aston Villa (D1 L1), as many as they had in their previous 22 league meetings with the Villans (D9 L8).
In Premier League history, only Middlesbrough (15 v Man Utd), Fulham (14 v Man City) and West Brom (13 v Arsenal) have hosted a side more often without registering a single clean sheet than Aston Villa and their 12 previous home games with Leicester, conceding 23 times across those matches.
Leicester are without a clean sheet in their last 14 away Premier League games, since a 0-0 draw with Wolves in February. However, they have also scored in all 14 games, with Burnley the last top-flight team having a longer away run both scoring and conceding, between April 1961 and March 1962 (16 games in a row).
Since their return to the Premier League in 2019, no side has lost more games on Sundays in the competition than Aston Villa (14). Meanwhile, only Tottenham (24) and Manchester United (18) have won more Sunday games than Leicester (17) in the same period.
Both previous meetings between Aston Villa boss Steven Gerrard and Leicester’s Brendan Rodgers ended in 1-0 home wins – one apiece for Rangers and Celtic in the 2018-19 Scottish Premiership.
Leicester striker Jamie Vardy has scored five goals in his last five Premier League games against Aston Villa, while teammate Harvey Barnes has been involved in four goals in his last three against the Villans (3 goals, 1 assist).
Aston Villa manager Steven Gerrard suffered only his second league defeat in 55 matches last time out against Manchester City (W44 D9), losing the other with Rangers in August against Dundee United. He has never lost consecutive league games as a manager, while only four players have made more Premier League appearances under Brendan Rodgers than Gerrard did during their time together at Liverpool (99).
Leicester manager Brendan Rodgers has won all six of his Premier League away games against Aston Villa – no manager has a better 100% win rate away against an opponent in the competition’s history (Jürgen Klopp also 6/6 vs Crystal Palace).
Ollie Watkins has scored 18 goals in 49 Premier League appearances for Aston Villa – the last Englishman to score more than 18 goals in his first 50 games in the competition was Charlie Austin in October 2016 (23 goals).
The Last Meeting
Aston Villa lost 2-1 against Leicester City in the Premier League at Villa Park back in February.
The Foxes hit the home side with two goals in four first half minutes to lead at the break, with Harvey Barnes adding to James Maddison’s 19th minute strike.
Bertrand Traoré fired the Villans back into the contest minutes after the interval, slamming home from Matt Targett’s cross, but it didn’t inspire a comeback from the home side.
Team News
Leon Bailey limped off against Manchester City in midweek and has since had a scan that revealed a quad injury.
Steven Gerrard expects the winger to be out until after Christmas, while Danny Ings is in contention to feature. Matt Targett faces a race to be fit for the game after sustaining an injury against City.
Youri Tielemans has missed Leicester’s last four games, but the Foxes are hopeful he might return to their squad on Sunday.
Ricardo Pereira, James Justin and Wesley Fofana remain sidelined.
The Boss
“You’ve got to be respectful of the challenge. Brendan’s done a really strong job at Leicester and we know that they’ve got very dangerous players. We know we’re going to have to control the front four or five, depending on how they set-up. We need to keep their main threats as quiet as possible. That’s going to take hard work, organisation and people really rolling up their sleeves to defend our goal. We know we’ve got talent and we know that we’ve got quality in our team to hurt any team.”
Steven Gerrard
Aston Villa v Leicester City
