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Aston Villa & Preston Feel The Pressure

While it’s always nice to sit back and enjoy some of the best football on the face of the planet courtesy of the Champions League, sometimes, you need to look more towards the entertainment side of things – and that doesn’t necessarily always equate to ‘bad’ football. In essence, we’re talking about the Championship, which is well known for being probably the biggest and best ‘second tier’ division in world football. Some people may disagree with that statement, but for the most part, it certainly rings true that there’s an entertainment factor associated with it that you just don’t get in other places.

Two clubs who are attempting to keep moving on up in the beautiful game, courtesy of the Championship, are Aston Villa and Preston North End. While their fortunes haven’t exactly been fantastic over the course of the last few years, at least in comparison to years gone by, they’re both definitely still intriguing teams to watch. They have historic stadiums, historic players from throughout the history of the game, and fanbases that have had to deal with a lot over the years. Of course, some more so than others, but such is the crazy nature of this sport we all know and love.

In terms of the managerial situation at both clubs, there’s definitely an interesting contrast between their situations. On one hand you’ve got Steve Bruce at Villa, and despite the Midlands side picking up some good results so far this season, their fans are still extremely eager to see him leave. On the other hand you’ve got Preston who are stuck at the bottom of the table, and yet, their fans are far more lenient when it comes to giving Alex Neil time to develop. That sums up the ‘back and forth’ nature of football perfectly, because even if you think you know it all, you probably don’t.

The fact that the game is taking place in midweek should give it time to build and grow in terms of the atmosphere, because while struggling teams don’t always lead to great investment from the fans, the appeal of a fixture that you know your club should be winning is often too much to pass up. Plus, if the result goes badly one way or another, we could be in for the next major sacking of the season – which would still be surprising, as we haven’t seen all too managerial departures of note thus far.

The old saying of ‘having something to prove’ certainly applies to Aston Villa Football Club right now, as they attempt to bounce back following a series of disappointments in the last few weeks. They’ve only been able to win one of their last six games, with defeats against Burton Albion, Sheffield United and Sheffield Wednesday thrown in there for good measure. They did manage to defeat Rotherham but a lot of fans don’t really view that as much of an achievement, with uninspiring draws against Bristol City and Blackburn Rovers on their resumé, too.

Preston, though, just can’t seem to catch a break at all despite having one of the most intriguing squads in the division. With just two draws and four losses in their last six, it’s clear to see that something needs to change, with the major issue being the defence. They’ve still been able to score 10 goals in those six games which showcases what they’re truly capable of, but that is balanced out by the fact that they’ve conceded 16 in that time. They aren’t the worst stats in the world, but there just seems to be no real confidence there whatsoever.

With the first meeting between these two clubs taking place in 1888 it’s no surprise for fans to learn that they’ve got a storied history together, with Aston Villa leading the head to head standings 57-38. They largely avoided each other in recent years though with Villa spending a lot of time in the top flight, and between February 1974 and September 2016, they only played once in a 2002 League Cup game. Their most recent meeting occurred in February of 2018, though, and it ended in a 1-1 draw. Given the stakes at hand here, it doesn’t really feel like that’s a scoreline we’ll see being repeated.

Villa have the far superior squad and they’re going to do everything in their power to expose that, likely with Abraham and Grealish leading the charge. Hourihane and Kodjia can often be a bit hit and miss but will probably still keep their places in the starting XI, and in the long run, that can only be a good thing for the playoff contenders. They’ve got the infrastructure in place to make some real noise at the top of the Championship, as we saw during their run to Wembley last season, but there are just a few pieces of the puzzle missing.

Preston actually have a really interesting squad themselves, with stars from Pearson to Robinson starting to make some noise. Unfortunately, maintaining that consistency as a unit is where they appear to be struggling, which leads us to believe that Neil could make some notable alterations ahead of the Villa game. While it may not come in the form of too many new players being introduced, we think a tactical change is necessary if they want to prevent slipping further and further towards the dreaded trap door of League One. They’ve been there before, and it took them a while to get back up.

Aston Villa vs Preston Betting Prediction

It’s never easy to pull yourself out of a difficult situation, and it’s even harder when you’re trying to do so with an entire football club. The pressure is definitely on the shoulders of the home side more so than Preston heading into this one, and we think that’s going to shine through on the pitch. Villa have great attacking options and could easily punish Neil’s men, but in contrast, they don’t have a great defence – which is always going to open the door to even more problems.

It’s no use looking at certain keys to victory for both teams, because it feels like it’s already written in the stars that they’re going to come out like two heavyweight boxers and just throw everything at the wall until something sticks. The end result of this is probably going to be incredibly fun to watch for neutrals, but not so much for the clubs themselves. We’re predicting a 2-2 draw that won’t really answer any of the questions at play, and won’t solve as many issues as some would like to think. Still, at least we’ll get some goals out of it.