Aston Villa go in search of a third straight victory in their penultimate Premier League outing of the season on Friday night as Tottenham Hotspur visit Villa Park.
Unai Emery's side host Spurs in their continued hunt for a top-five finish to secure UEFA Champions League football for 2025/26. The Villans enter the clash level on points with Chelsea, who are also in action on Friday night against Manchester United.
Last week's win at AFC Bournemouth ensured Villa would compete in European competition for a third straight year, while a win or draw in B6 would make it 18 Premier League games unbeaten on home soil, a new record, and 21 unbeaten in all competitions - the most since the turn of the century.
Ange Postecoglou's side, despite entering this clash on an indifferent run of league form, find themselves in next week's Europa League final, where they will take on United in Bilbao.
The north London outfit sit 17th in the top-flight table and have lost four of their last five league outings.
Stats
Tottenham striker Dominic Solanke has applied more pressures (1,198) and made more off-the-ball runs into the opposition box (290) than any other player in the Premier League this season.
Ollie Watkins scored his 75th Premier League goal last time out against Bournemouth, becoming Aston Villa’s highest goalscorer in the competition. He’s looking to score 10 home goals in the same top-flight season for the first time (currently 9), though none of his three goals against Spurs have come at Villa Park.
Tottenham have won just one of their last 10 Premier League games (D2 L7), beating bottom side Southampton 3-1 in April. They’ve conceded in each of their last 11 league games, their longest run without a clean sheet since a run of 17 between August and December 2010.
Tottenham have lost 24 games in all competitions this season, their second highest number of defeats in a single campaign in their history after 1991/92 (25).
Since the start of March, only Newcastle (22) have earned more points in the Premier League than Aston Villa (21), with the Villans winning seven of their eight matches in that time (L1).
Tottenham have won their final away league game in each of the last four campaigns, averaging four goals per game in these matches. However, their last such defeat came the last time their final away game wasn’t their overall final match of the season (0-1 v Bournemouth in 2018/19).
Aston Villa are unbeaten in their last 20 home games in all competitions (W14 D6), with the Villans last having a longer run between September 1976 and May 1977 (24).
Aston Villa have lost 4-0 and 4-1 in their last two Premier League games against Tottenham – only against Everton (1891) and Blackburn (1935/1936) have they conceded 4+ in three consecutive league games against an opponent.
Only against Manchester City (12) have Tottenham won more Premier League away games than they have against Aston Villa (11), with Spurs winning eight of their last nine at Villa Park (L1).
Aston Villa have won three of their last five Premier League games against Tottenham, though they have lost the last two. It’s more victories than they managed in their previous 21 against Spurs (W2 D3 L16).
The Last Meeting
The last meeting between these two sides came in the fourth round of this season's FA Cup, as Spurs visited Villa Park and were knocked out by Unai Emery's side.
Jacob Ramsey's drive crept through the grasp of Antonín Kinský inside the opening minute to put the hosts ahead, before Morgan Rogers poked home from close range just after the hour to double Villa's advantage.
Mathys Tel did halve the deficit in stoppage time with his first Tottenham goal, but the Villans held on to book their place in round five on their way to the semi-finals.
Team News
Unai Emery will be without Jacob Ramsey, the midfielder serving a one-match suspension having been dismissed for a second bookable offence at Bournemouth last weekend.
Marcus Rashford and Youri Tielemans remain sidelined, though Villa should be otherwise fully fit.
Tottenham captain Heung-Min Son could feature having returned from injury last time out.
Dejan Kulusevski, James Maddison, Lucas Bergvall, Radu Drǎgușin and Dane Scarlett are all out for the remainder of the season.
Managers' Pre-Match Thoughts
"I expect of them the best preparations for Friday and for the final they’re going to play, with the best players they have. Maybe some players are coming back after being injured or someone is not available. But I know on Friday we have to play our best and we have to focus 100 per cent on our gameplan, for 90 minutes, respecting them.”
Unai Emery
"We are certainly going to go out there and try to win the game, and put out a team that hopefully gets the job done.”
Ange Postecoglou