Aston Villa v Leeds United
Sunday 23rd December 1330hrs
Football – England – Championship
Pick: Under 2.5 goals
Bookmaker: Bet Victor
Odds: 11/10 (odds taken 23.30 GMT, Thursday 20 December)
ChampionshipBetting at Bet Victor
It’s without doubt the biggest fixture the Championship can offer as two of England’s biggest clubs, traditionally speaking, come face to face and it should be a Christmas cracker. Bigger things were expected of Villa this season in terms of a pursuit of automatic promotion but it’s been Leeds who have powered to the top of the table and know they’ll be on top for Christmas with a win. Continue reading for a match preview of Aston Villa against Leeds United with a selected best betting tip.
Aston Villa Preview
Dean Smith arrived at Villa Park in October and he’s had a transformative impact in the couple of months he’s been at the club. A big criticism from Villa’s supporters of Steve Bruce was his style of football and being unable to get the best out of what is a squad packed full of attacking talent. The same can certainly not be said about Smith. His Villa team are entertaining if nothing else and the supporters can definitely not accuse him of boring football. Aston Villa’s last seven games have contained 32 goals and they’ve not been beaten in any of them. There will be some frustrations with some of the points they’ve dropped in that time but there’s no doubting a feeling of positivity has returned to the club and that has to be capitalised on. Promotion is still very much the aim and a current position of eighth is below where they need to be but Villa are just three points off the top six. Having lost out in the playoff final last season, though, the club may well be looking at an outside run of making the top two but to do so they need all three points at home to Leeds on Saturday.
Leeds United Preview
There have been plenty of pundits and supporters of other clubs expecting Leeds to fall away under Marcelo Bielsa, and that his approach to the game is not conducive to a 46 game Championship season. Most predictions centred around Christmas time being the part of the season where we would see that decline, around the halfway mark. Well we’re four days away from Christmas and Leeds will travel to Villa Park on the back of five straight wins and they’re once again the form team in the league. What’s even more stunning is that they have won all of those five games without conceding a goal which is virtually unheard of in this league. Granted, the wins have come in games where you would expect a promotion and title chasing team to win but to do so consecutively at a stage of the season where players are tired then it’s just a really impressive achievement. Bielsa will also point to the injuries that his team are contending with at the moment and whilst their recent opponents have been teams in the lower part of the table, they remain top one game away from the halfway point meaning they’ve played the same teams as all the other 23 clubs.
Aston Villa v Leeds United Betting Advice
The return match between these two teams will be the penultimate game of the Championship regular season and who knows what the significance of that particular game at Elland Road will have on the fate of both Villa and Leeds’ seasons. This one is important though and for different reasons. Villa have improved under Smith and are scoring goals from all over the park, but they are conceding plenty too and not accumulating the number of points you need in order to make a charge of the automatic promotion places. Three points will assure Leeds of top spot at Christmas, which is more symbolic than anything else with such a hectic period to come the other side of Tuesday, but it’s something they’ll feel they’re deserving of having been top for so much of the season.
It’s appearing like a clash of styles, this one, and something of a role reversal from the beginning of the season when Villa were seen as more pragmatic and Leeds the free-flowing, swashbuckling outfit under Bielsa. Villa are a different entity under Smith whilst Bielsa has altered his style because that’s what good managers do when circumstances change and they become accustom to a new league. Both of these teams would enrichen the Premier League next season and we’ll hopefully get at least one next season. In terms of this game, the visitors know how to defend and keep clean sheets. They may find it hard to do the latter this time but it’s game I don’t see containing many goals. Indeed, as well as Leeds’ recent defensive shutouts, the last six meetings between these two have had two or fewer goals.
