At A Glance
Four days after beating Leeds United at Elland Road, Aston Villa return to Yorkshire on Wednesday night to face Sheffield United in the Premier League at Bramall Lane.
Anwar El Ghazi netted the only goal of the game to beat the Whites, with the Villans keeping their third consecutive clean sheet away from home.
Dean Smith’s team have picked up 23 of their 39 points on their travels this term and they have the fifth best away record in the top-flight heading into the game.
In contrast, Sheffield United have the worst home record of all 20 sides, picking up seven points from 13 games at Bramall Lane.
Chris Wilder’s side have also lost their last four Premier League matches, scoring once, following last weekend’s 2-0 defeat against Liverpool.
The Blades are 15 points adrift of safety with 12 games to play, sitting bottom of the table.
Standout Stats
Sheffield United have won their last two home league games against Aston Villa, last winning three in a row against them between 1968 and 1976.
Aston Villa are looking to secure their first league double over Sheffield United since the 1993-94 campaign, following their 1-0 win against them earlier this season.
Sheffield United have won their last two Premier League games played on a Wednesday, having won just one of their first 13 such games in the competition (D3 L9).
Aston Villa have lost each of their three Premier League games played on a Wednesday so far this season, with these coming in three consecutive weeks between January 20th and February 3rd.
Sheffield United have lost 10 home league games this season, only losing more in one season in their entire history, losing 11 at Bramall Lane in 2010-11 in the Championship.
Aston Villa have kept more away clean sheets than any other Premier League side this season (8). The Villans have never kept nine clean sheets on the road in a single top-flight campaign before.
Sheffield United have lost 21 league matches this season, the most by a side managed by Chris Wilder since his Northampton team lost 21 in 2014-15 in League Two. In only one previous season in his managerial career has Wilder lost more than 21, losing 22 matches in 2003-04 as Halifax Town manager in the Conference (now National League).
Sheffield United defender Enda Stevens hasn’t ended on the winning side in any of his 18 Premier League appearances this season (D2 L16) – the last player to play more matches in a season in the competition without winning was Alan Hutton in 2015-16 for Aston Villa (P28 D6 L22).
Anwar El Ghazi is enjoying his best goalscoring season for Aston Villa in both the league (6) and in all competitions (7). Five of the Dutchman’s six Premier League goals this term have come away from home.
The Last Meeting
Aston Villa kicked off the current Premier League season against Sheffield United at Villa Park back in September.
John Egan was sent-off after 12 minutes for bringing down Ollie Watkins, and the Blades missed a golden chance to snatch a first half lead as Emi Martinez saved John Lundstram’s penalty.
The defining moment finally arrived after 63 minutes when Ezri Konsa flicked a header in at the far post.
Team News
Matty Cash and Kortney Hause will miss the match but are back in non-contact training. Further good news arrived this week as striker Wesley returned to full contact training for the first time since his knee injury against Burnley on New Year’s Day.
Captain Jack Grealish has yet to return to training and will not feature against the Blades.
For Sheffield United, boss Chris Wilder has problems in defence where Chris Basham, John Egan and Jayden Bogle are sidelined.
Sander Berge, Jack O’Connell, Jack Robinson and Jack Rodwell are their other injured players.
The Boss
“They’re still fighting and they won’t believe they’re down yet, but it’s looking hard for them. They’ve had some key players out. Dean Henderson, the goalkeeper, left, Jack O’Connell’s been out most of the season, so they’ve lost some key players at key times. We’ve been through that ourselves last year, losing John McGinn, Wesley and Tom Heaton. It’s very difficult to be really good competitors in this league when you’ve lost key players. I’ve known Chris (Wilder) for a long time and I don’t doubt their professionalism and pride in every game that they play. Knowing Chris as I do, they will be ready for every game.”
Dean Smith
