At A Glance
Aston Villa’s final four Premier League fixtures begin with a trip to rivals Wolves on Saturday.
The side’s ten-game unbeaten run came to an end with a 1-0 defeat against Manchester United last time out but hopes of European qualification are still alive for Unai Emery’s team.
Villa, who own the sixth-best away record in the top tier, are looking to pick up a seventh league win on their travels.
Wolves endured a tough day last weekend when Brighton put six goals past them without reply at the Amex Stadium.
Julen Lopetegui’s team will try to recover from the club’s heaviest defeat since 2006 by leaning on their home form.
The Black Country side have won 26 of their 37 points at Molineux, seeing off Crystal Palace 2-0 in their last league encounter at home.
Standout Stats
Villa's league run of 10 games unbeaten and scoring in 20 successive matches under Unai Emery was ended by last Sunday's 1-0 defeat at Manchester United.
Wolves are unbeaten in the past four Premier League meetings (W2, D2). Their most recent longer run without a league defeat against Villa spanned eight games between 1957 and 1961.
Unai Emery has won one of his six meetings with Wolves counterpart Julen Lopetegui, with each of the last three finishing 1-1.
Last weekend's 6-0 thrashing by Brighton is Wolves' heaviest league defeat since March 2007, when they were beaten by the same score against Southampton in the Championship.
Nonetheless, Wolves are vying to win four successive top-flight home games for the first time since April 1975. They last did so without conceding a goal in December 1969 as part of five in a row.
Aston Villa's head coach is winless in all four of his Premier League meetings with Wolves (D3, L1). He has never faced a side in the division more often without ever winning.
Wolves have registered six victories in their eight Premier League home fixtures in 2023. Only Manchester City and Manchester United have fared better.
Wolves have kept a clean sheet in all eight of their league wins at Molineux this season.
Ollie Watkins, who has gone three appearances without a goal, needs to score once more to become the first Villa player to reach 15 in a top-flight season since Christian Benteke a decade ago.
The Last Meeting
Danny Ings salvaged a draw for Aston Villa when the two sides faced off at Villa Park in January.
The striker ran onto Tyrone Mings’ lofted through ball and calmly slotted the ball past Jose Sa.
Daniel Podence had fired the visitors in front after 12 minutes, flashing fast feet in the box before picking out the far corner.
Team News
Aston Villa have been handed a quadruple boost ahead of the game.
Matty Cash, Philippe Coutinho, Leon Bailey and Boubacar Kamara have all returned to training and will be assessed ahead of the trip.
Nelson Semedo is a doubt for the hosts after coming off injured against Brighton last weekend.
Chinquinho has returned to training but is unlikely to feature, while Sasa Kalajdzic is ruled out.
The Boss
“We have to play it with two objectives: one, to play well because that is the way to win, and then trying to be competitive and adapt to the emotions we are going to face. We have experience from the match we played here at home, but I think it’s going to be a little bit different. They are now better, we are now better and we’re playing in their stadium with their supporters. Our supporters will be there as well, travelling to support us, and we will try to connect with them.”
Unai Emery
