Overview
Crystal Palace just beat Fulham 2-0 to win 3/4 of their most recent match. However, the match against Aston Villa at Selhurst Park in the next round promises to be a difficult challenge for Palace.
The home form of coach Oliver Glasner's team is quite poor with 3 defeats, 1 draw and 1 win in the last 5 matches in the Premier League. They have also conceded a total of 11 goals during this period.
Meanwhile, Aston Villa are happy after defeating Chelsea in round 26. This result marks the 4th consecutive unbeaten match of coach Unai Emery's team. They also beat Tottenham, drew with Liverpool and Ipswich.
Before round 27, The Villans ranked 8th but in fact the gap to the top 4 was only 2 points. They still have a chance to compete for a ticket to the Champions League next season.
Coach Emery has the right to be confident when holding many players in high form. Ollie Watkins has scored 4 goals in the last 6 matches with a total of 13 goals this season. Meanwhile, Morgan Rogers scored the winning goal against Tottenham in the FA Cup. New signing Marco Asensio also scored twice against Chelsea and Marcus Rashford assisted both of those goals.
Aston Villa have also scored better than Palace in the Premier League this season, with 39 goals compared to 31 of their opponents. In the context of Palace playing unstable at home, Villa are likely to win.
Both teams have won 3 and drawn 2 of their last 8 meetings. They held each other to a 2-2 draw in the first leg in November last year.
Personnel situation
Aston Villa will be without Boubacar Kamara, Ross Barkley, Amadou Onana and Pau Torres, who are all sidelined through injury. Watkins will lead the attack again, while Axel Disasi will continue in the defender position.
On the other side of the front line, Joel Ward, Chadi Riad and Cheick Doucoure are all sidelined through injury and will be absent from this match. Adam Wharton could be available as a starter. Eze will start in midfield, while Mateta is expected to lead the attack once again.
Expected lineup:
Aston Villa: Martinez, Digne, Mings, Disasi, Garcia, McGinn, Tielemans, Rashford, Asensio, Rogers, Watkins.
Crystal Palace: Henderson, Guehi, Lacroix, Richards, Mitchell, Lerma, Wharton, Munoz, Eze, Sarr, Mateta.
The match between Aston Villa and Crystal Palace takes place at 2:30 am on February 26 (Vietnam time).
