At A Glance
Steven Gerrard’s first away game in charge of Aston Villa takes him to south London and Selhurst Park, where an in-form Crystal Palace side await.
A familiar foe will be lurking in the opposition dugout too, with former Arsenal midfielder Patrick Vieira also tackling his first Premier League job.
The Frenchman has overseen a solid start to the campaign which sees Palace occupy tenth place heading into the weekend’s games.
Vieira is yet to taste defeat at Selhurst Park as a manager in the top-flight and has seen his team win two and draw four of their six league games on home soil.
After picking up a debut win at a buoyant Villa Park last weekend, seeing off Brighton 2-0, Gerrard is tasked with improving the worst away record in the league.
Villa have lost five of their six road trips this season, with the sole win a momentous one against Manchester United.
Standout Stats
Crystal Palace have won five of their last six home league games against Aston Villa (L1), including each of the last three in a row.
Aston Villa have won three of their last five Premier League games against Crystal Palace (L2), as many as they had in their first 13 against them in the competition.
When scoring at least once in Premier League games against Aston Villa, Crystal Palace’s record is P11 W7 D3 L1, winning the last six such games. However, the Eagles have failed to score in five of their last eight against the Villans in the competition.
Crystal Palace are unbeaten at home in the Premier League so far this season (W2 D4). They last avoided defeat in their first seven home games of a league campaign in 1993-94 (second tier), while they last did so in the top-flight in 1990-91.
Crystal Palace are without defeat in their last seven Premier League games (W2 D5), the longest current unbeaten run in the competition. The Eagles themselves last had a longer unbeaten run in the competition in December 2017 (8 games).
Aston Villa got off to a winning start under Steven Gerrard against Brighton last time out – the only manager to win both of his first two Premier League games in charge of the Villans was John Gregory in March 1998.
Aston Villa have lost their last three Premier League away games, last losing more in a row on the road in the competition between February 2016 and September 2019 (10).
Christian Benteke’s last eight Premier League goals have either put Crystal Palace ahead (4) or been an equalising goal (4). Indeed, 71% of his overall Premier League goals have altered the result at that point in the match (61/86) – among players to score at least 60 Premier League goals, only Dion Dublin (72%) has scored a higher share of this type.
Against no side has Aston Villa striker Danny Ings scored more Premier League goals than he has against Crystal Palace (5). However, after scoring (2) or assisting (2) four goals in his first five league appearances for the Villans, Ings has netted just once more (0 assists) in his last five games.
As players, Crystal Palace manager Patrick Vieira and Aston Villa boss Steven Gerrard met nine times in the Premier League. Gerrard didn’t lose any of the first six such meetings (W3 D3), with Vieira winning two of the last three (L1).
The Last Meeting
Aston Villa led twice but fell to defeat in a five-goal thriller against Crystal Palace at Selhurst Park in the Premier League back in May.
John McGinn coolly passed the visiting Villans into the lead after 17 minutes as they capitalised on a dominant start to the game.
Former Villa striker Christian Benteke pulled one back against the run of play, but the sides were level for all of two minutes before Anwar El Ghazi smashed home his tenth goal of the season.
The Eagles came out with renewed vigour in the second half and they equalised through Wilfried Zaha before Tyrick Mitchell chested the ball home from close range to snatch all three points.
Team News
Steven Gerrard offered updates on number of the Villa squad in his Friday press conference, with the head coach indicating that Morgan Sanson and Douglas Luiz are both fit to be in the matchday squad.
Trezeguet is progressing well while Bertrand Traore is still “some weeks away”.
Patrick Vieira has almost a fully fit squad to pick from, with James McArthur the only player to definitely miss out.
Eberechi Eze completed a full week's training and Nathan Ferguson is stepping up his recovery from injury.
The Boss
"He [Patrick Vieira] was a top, top footballer and one of the toughest battles I ever faced. I expect the same to be the case on the sideline. I know he's a winner, he's a competitor. He's started the job off at Crystal Palace really, really well. He's changed the style. Roy Hodgson did a fantastic job prior, but he seems to have built on all that good work. He's got his team flying high, so it's going to be a tough test. We've got a lot of respect for the fixture ahead, but we've got to try and build on our good week last weekend."
Steven Gerrard
