At A Glance
Aston Villa supporters will make the journey to Villa Park for the final time this season as Steven Gerrard’s side plays their penultimate Premier League fixture against Burnley.
It’s the team’s third consecutive game in B6 following a 2-1 loss to Liverpool and a 1-1 draw against Crystal Palace on Sunday.
Hopes of climbing into the top ten over the final two matches require Villa to pick up at least four points and hope for results elsewhere to go their way.
Opponents Burnley face a struggle to retain their Premier League status in their final fixtures, with the Clarets currently occupying the final relegation place.
An initial resurgence under interim boss Mike Jackson was halted by Villa at Turf Moor earlier this month, and they subsequently lost to Tottenham Hotspur 1-0 on Sunday.
Burnley have taken only 13 points on their travels this term, winning twice, drawing seven and losing nine of their 18 away trips.
Standout Stats
Following their 3-1 win at Turf Moor earlier this month, Aston Villa are looking to complete their first league double over Burnley since the 1925-26 campaign. They won 10-0 against them at Villa Park that season, their joint-biggest margin of victory in their Football League history.
Burnley have lost just one of their last seven away league games against Aston Villa (W3 D3), going down 5-2 in February 2010. They’re unbeaten in their last three league visits to Villa Park, only having a longer run without defeat there once (4 games between 1930 and 1947).
Aston Villa have won their final home league game in each of the last two seasons, beating Arsenal 1-0 in 2019-20 and Chelsea 2-1 last term. They last won their final home game in three consecutive campaigns between 2000-01 and 2002-03.
Burnley have lost their final away league game in four of the last five seasons, winning the other against already relegated Norwich City in 2019-20.
Aston Villa haven’t won any of their last seven midweek (Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday) Premier League home games (D3 L4) since a 1-0 win against Arsenal in July 2020.
Burnley have won 38% of their Premier League games on Thursdays (3/8), their best win rate on a single day of the week. Those three wins have come in their last five such games (D1 L1), with the Clarets also keeping four clean sheets in that run.
Aston Villa have opened the scoring in each of their last four Premier League games, their longest run since a run of five in April/May last season. However, the Villans have failed to go on to win either of their last two, losing 2-1 against Liverpool and drawing 1-1 with Crystal Palace.
Burnley have won just two of their last 19 Premier League away games (D7 L10), with only bottom side Norwich (11) scoring fewer goals on the road this term than the Clarets (15).
Only already-relegated sides Norwich (21) and Watford (18) have failed to score in more different Premier League games this season than Burnley (16). Only in 2014-15 (18) and 2020-21 (17) have the Clarets failed to find the net in more different Premier League matches.
Aston Villa’s Ollie Watkins has scored three goals in his last four Premier League games, as many as he had in his previous 14 league appearances. If he scores here, it will be his 50th home goal in English league football (excluding play-offs).
The Last Meeting
Aston Villa blew Burnley away with a tremendous performance at Turf Moor earlier this month.
Emiliano Buendía was at his best, creating one and scoring one in the first half, teeing up Danny Ings before converting Lucas Digne’s pull back as the visitors took a 2-0 lead into half-time.
Ollie Watkins added a third shortly after the restart, with the home side finally hitting back when Maxwel Cornet slammed home a consolation in stoppage time.
Team News
Steven Gerrard revealed that Ezri Konsa sustained a knee injury against Crystal Palace and will be out for between 12 and 16 weeks.
Emi Martinez picked up a knock in training but is hopeful of shaking it off to face Burnley. Leon Bailey and Kortney Hause are both missing.
Clarets interim boss Mike Jackson says Jay Rodriguez has a chance of making the game, while he also hopes James Tarkowski and Ben Mee will play some part in their remaining games.
Johann Berg Gudmundsson, Dale Stephens, Ashley Westwood and Matej Vydra will all miss out.
The Boss
“I’m not sure how Burnley are going to approach it, whether they’re going to come with the attitude of ‘it’s a must-win game’ or whether they’ll come with the attitude that a point might be enough for them. My focus is on us. We’ll be aggressive, we’re at home. We played at Burnley recently and we played extremely well and we won the game comfortably. They’re going to be all in and they’re going to empty it at Villa Park, so we need to compete and match that in all departments and hopefully our quality will come through.”
Steven Gerrard
