Fulham vs Aston Villa
England – The Championship
Date: Monday, 17th April 2017
Kick off at 14:45 UK/ 15:45 CET
Venue: Craven Cottage.
Few would have expected Fulham to be 12 points above Villa coming into the final 4 games of the season. The Claret & Blues may have found some form of late but Fulham have been playing much the better football and look capable of claiming the win here.
They have more incentive to do so as they look to break into the top six. They’ve won 3 of their last 4 games including an excellent 3-1 win at Norwich on Good Friday, despite being reduced to 10 men in the 1st Half. They are now the joint top scorers in the Championship with 1.79 goals per game on average and that increases to an excellent 1.95 when only considering their home games.
Given they sold their top two scorers from last season in the summer, including Ross McCormack who has since flopped at Aston Villa and now Nottingham Forest, it’s surprising how they’ve managed to maintain such a great attacking threat. Tom Cairney has been a key man with some brilliant midfield displays. The Scot scored at Norwich to move onto 10 goals for the season and backing Cairney to score anytime at 9/4 looks good here too.
Fulham have made a habit of beating the bigger teams this season. having already done the double over Newcastle and they certainly won’t fear Villa. The Londoners have scored a huge 31 more goals than their opponents this season and also should have an advantage here in that they’ve had an extra day to prepare. Villa will be faced with their 2nd game in 3 days and really made no effort to rotate on Saturday by making only 1 change to their previous line-up but still slipped to a 3-1 defeat at home to Reading.
That ended their slim play-off hopes and the impressive unbeaten run they’d been on. Steve Bruce will surely freshen things up a bit here but with an average of just 0.86 points per away game this term, he won’t be that confident. Villa have scored just 0.62 goals per game on the road and have only one away win against a side not currently in the bottom eight.
Therefore, this will be a tough game for the visitors and backing Fulham to Win at 5/6 looks like the best bet.
Fulham vs Aston Villa: Head to head
Fulham has the advantage over Aston Villa in terms of direct clashes. Fulham have 4 wins, Villa 2 and the draws are 4.
At home Fulham have 2 wins and 2 draws.
The three of the 4 home games Fulham finished with a clean sheet.
Last game between the sides was a victory for Aston Villa with 1-0 at Villa Park.
Fulham vs Aston Villa: Prediction
Fulham are in need for points here to keep the pressure on Sheffield W. Villa lost all hopes for play-off places last game and may be demotivated and demoralized. Coupled with their poor away record this season home wins looks to have some value.
Different approach would be to pick BTTS as Fulham tends to be letting easy goals in. Cottagers have kept only one clean sheet in their last 10 home games.
Fulham vs Aston Villa: Bet Tips
First pick: Fulham to win for 1.854 at Pinnacle.
Second pick: BTTS – Yes for 1.68 at Bet365.
