The English Premier League dishes up a tasty local derby on Saturday as Aston Villa welcome West Midlands rivals Wolverhampton Wanderers to Villa Park.
Villa’s relegation fears are still very real after failing to win any of their three games since the restart, while Wolves’ situation looks a lot brighter.
Back-to-back victories have seen the Wanderers move level with fifth-place Manchester United and within touching distance of the Champions League spots.
Villa can probably count themselves fortunate to still be in with a chance of avoiding the drop. Draws with Sheffield United and Newcastle, along with a defeat to Chelsea, have seen the relegation battlers take just two points from a possible nine since the restart.
But with Bournemouth and West Ham both losing their previous two games, second-bottom Villa remain locked on 27 points with the two teams directly above them in the table.
Ahmed Elmohamady’s late equalizer last time out could prove to be hugely important come the end of the season. The Villains were dominated for large spells against Newcastle but eventually managed to come away with a vital point.
Meanwhile, Wolves have picked up where they left off before the campaign was put on hold with comfortable wins against relegation-threatened West Ham and Bournemouth.
Lethal forward duo Adama Traore and Raul Jimenez have already combined for two goals since the resumption, and they’ll be confident of linking up successfully again against Villa's frail defence.
In fact, Villa have the worst defensive record in the Premier League this season. Wolves’ talented forwards will be licking their lips at the prospect of facing their leaky backline.
Goal from Ruben Neves and Raul Jimenez ensured that Wolves got the better of Villa in the reverse fixture earlier in the campaign.
Nuno’s men have won three of their previous five meetings with Villa and have only lost two of their last seven games in all competitions against their West Midlands rivals.
Villa remain without long-term absentees Tom Heaton and Wesley, but the recently-returned John McGinn has boosted the team.
As for Wolves, Nuno has no fresh injury concerns heading into Saturday’s clash. However, given the demanding schedule, he is likely to rotate his starting XI.
You can’t help but feel the worst for Villa this weekend. When you couple the home side’s woeful defensive record with Wolves’ free-flowing attacking style, all the signs point towards a high-scoring away win here.
Forebet predicts that Wolves will score over 2.5 goals while keeping a clean sheet on their way to victory.