The West Midlands Derby is one of the biggest occasions in English football and we look ahead to this huge game with our match preview.
The game between Aston Villa and Wolverhampton Wanderers will be played on the 30th of March at Villa Park. The hosts begin this weekend in 4th place on 56 points while the visitors are in 9th place on 41 points.
Aston Villa come into the game on the back of a 1-1 draw at West Ham United in the Premier League last time out.
A special Molineux atmosphere 😍#OnThisDay | @wlv_uni pic.twitter.com/yGO8lgAMC5— Wolves (@Wolves) March 16, 2024
A special Molineux atmosphere 😍#OnThisDay | @wlv_uni pic.twitter.com/yGO8lgAMC5
It was West Ham who opened the scoring in the 29th minute to lead 1-0 at the interval. Aston Villa came back well in the second half and equalised in the 79th minute to take a point.
The draw at West Ham means Aston Villa are undefeated in 6 of their 7 most recent fixtures in all competitions.
There have been wins over Fulham and Luton Town away plus Nottingham Forest at home in the Premier League.
There was also a good 4-0 home win over Ajax in the Europa Conference League plus a 0-0 draw at Ajax in the same competition. The only defeat was a disappointing 4-0 loss at home against Tottenham Hotspur in the Premier League.
Trends show Aston Villa are unbeaten in 17 of their last 20 home matches in the Premier League.
There have been over 2.5 goals and both teams have scored in 5 of their last 6 Premier League games on home soil.
Wolverhampton Wanderers make the short journey to Villa Park having lost 3-2 at home to Coventry City in the FA Cup quarter-final prior to the international break.
It was an extremely disappointing defeat for Wolves against the Championship club and they led 2-1 going into added time only to concede 2 goals.
The defeat against Coventry City was the second loss in 6 matches in all competitions for Wolves.
There have been wins over Sheffield United and Fulham at home plus Tottenham Hotspur away in the Premier League plus a 1-0 home victory over Brighton in the FA Cup.
The other defeat came at Newcastle United in the Premier League.
The stats show Wolves are undefeated in 4 of their last 5 away Premier League fixtures. There have been over 2.5 goals scored in 9 of their last 10 away league games, with both teams scoring in 9 of their last 11 Premier League matches on the road.
Team news: Aston Villa are without suspended midfielder John McGinn. Boubacar Kamara, Tyrone Mings, and Emiliano Buendia are injured plus there are doubts over the fitness of Matty Cash and Jacob Ramsey.
Wolves travel without the injured duo of Pedro Neto and Hee-Chan Hwang. There are doubts over the fitness of Craig Dawson, Matheus Cunha, and Jeanricner Bellegarde.
Based on the teams form, predictive analysis suggests we are going to see over 2.5 goals and both teams scoring in this game. Despite their recent struggles at home against top half opposition, we expect Aston Villa to come out on top.