Aston Villa twice faced Brentford in the opening month of the season, losing 1-0 in the league and on penalties in the Carabao Cup as part of a six-match winless start to the season in all competitions. While Brentford have continued to surpass expectations under rookie head coach Keith Andrews, Villa’s transformation has been remarkable and relentless.
Returning heroes and Villans
Aston Villa are the Premier League’s form side over the past 18 fixtures, earning 43 points – three more than league leaders Arsenal, with Manchester City a point further back and no other team in sight.
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Nonetheless, Villa are now accruing key injuries almost as quickly as points. In the space of four games, first-choice midfield trio Boubacar Kamara, 2024–25 player of the season Youri Tielemans and captain John McGinn all sustained long-term injuries.
Amid such rotten luck and severe financial constraints, manager Unai Emery has opted for a crowd-pleasing approach – Sunday’s game will be a homecoming for re-signed fan favourites Tammy Abraham and Douglas Luiz, as well as winger Leon Bailey, recalled from loan at Roma and whose last league start at Villa Park came a year ago.
The latter two signings fill the vast void left by Tielemans and McGinn, while Abraham provides the traditional centre-forward option more suited to Villa’s system than the departed Donyell Malen.
All three new recruits have had their own injury issues in recent years and Emery is gambling on their fitness and form. As a loanee, Abraham scored 26 goals – all from 15 yards out or less – to help Villa earn promotion in 2019, while Luiz and Bailey were standout performers for much of the 2023-24 season as the Birmingham side finished fourth.
[BBC]
Will Brentford defensive strategy require a rethink?
Brentford have the joint-fifth highest points tally in the league over the past 18 games, amassing 29 points during that time, but they come into this fixture off the back of successive 2-0 defeats. The Bees haven’t lost three league matches in a row without scoring since March 2012 as a League One side.
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They’ve never won a league game at Villa Park in 10 previous attempts and only bottom side Wolves have fared worse than their eight top-flight away defeats this season.
Head coach Andrews said of the early-season wins over Aston Villa: “I feel it was such a long time ago for both teams. We’ve evolved but there’s obvious things we can take from the two games that we’ve looked at this week.”
One of those could well be adapting their usual tactics to lessen Villa’s chances of adding to their league-high tally of 13 goals from outside the penalty area. Brentford are typically happy to defend in numbers inside their own 18-yard area and invite the opposition to try their luck from range – 37% of the shots they have faced have been from outside the box, the highest percentage in the division.
It has been an effective strategy so far, with no side conceding fewer goals from distance.
[BBC]
