At A Glance
Aston Villa are hunting a sixth straight Premier League win when they play Brentford at Gtech Community Stadium on Saturday.
Unai Emery’s team have surged up the table on the back of taking 22 points out of the last 24 available, catapulting the club into contention for a top-six finish.
A polished performance against Newcastle United last time out resulted in a 3-0 win, aided by two more goals for top scorer Ollie Watkins.
The Bees have hit a sticky patch in recent times and are on a run of five matches without a win.
Thomas Frank’s team have lost the last three, succumbing to Manchester United, Newcastle and Wolves.
However, Brentford have been a force on home turf this season and have lost only twice at the Gtech as they look to secure a top-ten position.
Standout Stats
Brentford have earned four straight home wins over Aston Villa in all competitions, including a first top-flight victory against them in January last year.
Villa's most recent competitive victory at Brentford came in a FA Cup fourth-round replay in February 1953, six years after their last away league triumph in this fixture.
The Bees’ only two league defeats at home this season came against Arsenal in September and Newcastle United on April 8.
Ollie Watkins has scored 11 times in 12 league appearances, including one in each of his last six away matches. He needs one more goal to become the first Villa player to reach 15 in a top-flight season since Christian Benteke a decade ago.
Brentford are three points shy of their final tally of 46 from last season.
Villa’s most recent longest top-flight winning streak spanned seven games between December 1989 and February 1990 under Graham Taylor.
Ivan Toney has alternated between scoring a goal and not scoring across his last 11 league appearances; he failed to score in their most recent outing.
Villa have scored in all 18 Premier League matches under Emery, the longest streak by any club this season.
Thomas Frank has won 99 of his 225 matches as Brentford head coach in all competitions.
Villa have equalled the club record of five consecutive Premier League victories, set in 1996 and matched 25 years ago.
It's six wins in eight Premier League away fixtures for Villa under Unai Emery.
Villa can net multiple goals in six successive top-flight games for the first time since a run of seven from October to November 1980.
The Last Meeting
Aston Villa blew Brentford away at Villa Park in October, racing into a three-goal lead and never looking back.
Leon Bailey struck after just 65 seconds and a brace from Danny Ings followed swiftly.
Ollie Watkins put the exclamation mark on a big win with a fourth goal in the second half.
Team News
Aston Villa remain without Leon Bailey, Matty Cash, Philippe Coutinho and Boubacar Kamara for the trip to London.
Pontus Jansson, Keane Lewis-Potter and Kristoffer Ajer will all be absent for the Bees.
The Boss
“We lost three matches one month ago and our reaction was very good. They can do the same. They were in front of us one or two months ago with an important points difference, and now they are behind, but it’s a match for us to try and get away from them or for them to get closer to us. We are now trying to compete for Europe. If they beat us on Saturday, they can do the same. We are both playing for an important three points for our future. We lost in Newcastle 4-0 and we got revenge against them here. Against Brentford, we won the first match 4-0 and they will be thinking they can get revenge against us. For me, Brentford have a good coach who has worked with them for a long time and they have a clear gameplan for each match. They are strong in their idea and we have to adapt.”
Unai Emery
