At A Glance
Premier League football returns to Villa Park on Wednesday night as Aston Villa face Leeds United.
A sell-out crowd will cheer the home side on as they spring back into action after the winter break, aiming to pick up a second consecutive win.
Emiliano Buendía’s header earned a 1-0 victory against Everton last time out, pushing Villa up to 11th in the table.
Leeds are four points behind Steven Gerrard’s side and arrive in B6 in positive mood after beating West Ham 3-2 in their last away game.
It was the second win in they’ve managed in ten away trips this term, picking up nine points on their travels in total.
The Whites were humbled at home by Newcastle in their last outing, losing 1-0 to the Magpies.
Standout Stats
Aston Villa have lost their last two home league matches against Leeds, losing 3-2 in the Championship in December 2018 and 3-0 in the Premier League last season. They’ve never lost three in a row at home to the Whites.
The home team has won just one of the last seven league meetings between Aston Villa and Leeds (D3 L3), a 1-0 Villa win in April 2018 at Villa Park.
This will be Leeds United’s 4000th league match since joining the Football League in 1920. The last four teams to hit this figure as a Premier League side have lost their 4000th game – Spurs in November 2017 (1-2 vs Leicester), Watford in April 2018 (0-1 vs Huddersfield), Bournemouth in December 2019 (0-2 vs Brighton) and Crystal Palace in July 2020 (2-3 vs Chelsea).
Aston Villa have alternated between scoring once and scoring twice in their last seven home Premier League games (2-3, 1-4, 2-0, 1-2, 2-1, 1-3, 2-2) and have only failed to score in one of their last 16 games at Villa Park, a goalless draw with Everton in May.
Leeds won their last away match against West Ham, winning 3-2. They haven’t won consecutive away games since May when they beat Burnley and Southampton, while the Whites last won their first two away games in a year back in 2005 in the Championship, beating Coventry and Stoke.
Steven Gerrard has lost two of his five home Premier League matches as Aston Villa manager (W2 D1) – he only lost three of his 59 home league games as Rangers manager (W48 D8 L3).
This could be Raphinha’s 50th Premier League appearance for Leeds and the Brazilian has been involved in 25 goals in 49 games so far (14 goals, 11 assists), the most of any Whites player since his debut in October 2020. In that time he has also created the most chances (103), completed the most dribbles (101) and had the most touches in the opposition box (208) of any Leeds player.
Lucas Digne has created four chances for Aston Villa in the Premier League since his move from Everton, all for Emiliano Buendía, including assisting his winner against the Toffees. Buendía has also created one chance for Digne, with the duo combining once every 36 minutes, the second-best ratio of any duo to play 100 minutes alongside one another this season (Jamie Vardy/Ayoze Pérez, one every 32 mins).
The Last Meeting
Anwar El Ghazi’s goal ensured Aston Villa left Elland Road with a hard-fought 1-0 victory over Leeds United in February 2021.
The wide man slotted home the only goal of the game in the fifth minute to secure the spoils.
Resolute Villa stood firm to seal their 13th Premier League clean sheet of 2020/21 and wrap up their first triumph at Elland Road since 2000, when watching England boss Gareth Southgate was on target.
Team News
Leon Bailey is back in full training but will play no part on Wednesday night as he builds up his fitness.
Marvelous Nakamba is Villa’s only other injury absentee.
For Leeds, Liam Cooper, Junior Firpo and Kalvin Phillips are in the final stages of their recovery from operations.
Patrick Bamford will miss out through injury, while Marcelo Bielsa can welcome back Jamie Shackleton, Adam Forshaw and Charlie Cresswell.
The Boss
“My opinion on Leeds is, as a team and as a squad, they’ve got really talented players, really dangerous players. They haven’t had the best of luck in terms of injuries, so it’s not fair to judge them too strongly. I’ve only focussed on Leeds over the last few weeks as I was in Scotland up until November, but from the outside I’ve always enjoyed watching Leeds. I think they’re a very exciting team. They take it to every opponent and they’ve got a world class manager who’s done a phenomenal job from where he took over to where he’s got them to now.”
Steven Gerrard
