The Aston Villa Appetiser: Reading vs Villa Match Preview

 

An in a Nutshell Villa Match Preview…

 

Match Difficulty Grade

B – We spoke earlier in the season of the Villa rollercoaster, and this is a fine example – a game that could make for some of the most nervous viewing in recent Villa years. A win here would kick the team on, while a loss would make things very ugly indeed. Reading will fancy their chances here, but having lost to us at home back in November, can we be quietly confident?

 

Form is Temporary

Current Premier League form table (last six games) – Reading – 12th / Aston Villa – 17th

Reading: Last five Premier League matches at home: W 3, D 1, L 1

Aston Villa: Last five Premier League matches away: D 3, L 2

The last couple of times Villa have traveled to the Madejski Stadium in the Premier League we have won once and lost once (in 2007 and 2008 respectively).

 

Facts to Sweep Under the Carpet

Brian McDermott is confident of Reading staying up, and let’s be realistic – at least one of Villa or Reading will definitely go down. While it would be nice to dent the Royal’s belief with three points, it could prove a challenge – Villa have failed to win in seven away games and conceded a worrying 22 goals in the process. In fact, I doubt there’s any team who’s also better in squandering leads away from home.

 

What We Pray the Football Gods Will Provide

Simple. Points! The mood amongst Villa fans isn’t great at the moment, with the relegation cloud looming, but a good performance at the Madejski Stadium would get the claret and blue faithful believing again. With Delph unfortunately suspended from the next couple of fixtures, it could be a good time to see the emergence of the late January signings. The quality in Villa’s front line has frightened teams higher in the league than Reading – lets hope our attack is at its best.

 

Why Villa are Totally 100% Going to Win

Reading could well be rattled after three consecutive defeats and a strange stat, that they are yet to beat a team in the bottom five, shows how inconsistent their form has been. With Reading’s star man Adam Le Fondre finding goals hard to come by at the moment it could be an occasion for our attacking players to shine. We’re not ones to talk about inconsistency, but with the chance to score our 1,000th goal, it would be rude not to take it, and the chance to get our 1001th goal and more! In November, the reverse fixture of this match lifted us out of the bottom three, so lets hope history repeats itself. UTV.

 

Follow Lewis on Twitter on @rymondfootball

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