Aston Villa overpriced to return to winning ways when they visit Hull

Sky Bet Championship
Sky Sports Football, 5.30pm Saturday

Aston Villa's automatic promotion bid has hit a rough patch in recent weeks but they are not completely resigned to a playoff place just yet and can give their chances a boost by beating Hull at the KCom Stadium.

The Villans looked like real contenders in the Sky Bet Championship when they downed league leaders Wolves 4-1 earlier this month but they then slumped to defeats against QPR and Bolton.

The market spoke heavily in favour of Steve Bruce’s team on both occasions but that’s not the case this week. The Tigers are slight favourites with most bookmakers but Villa shouldn’t be written off.

While they have disappointed recently, the international break came at the right time for Villa, who were able to take stock and prepare themselves for a promotion tilt. They have a stronger squad than Hull and the addition of a fit-again Jonathan Kodjia offers Bruce another weapon in attack, though the striker has been injured since October.

Hull have won two of their last three matches but they are yet to beat any of the teams who entered the weekend occupying the top six positions in the second tier.

Hull team profile

Aston Villa team profile

Sky Bet Championship standings

Tigers boss Nigel Adkins has opted to stick by veteran captain Michael Dawson despite the 34-year-old struggling as Hull went down 3-0 against Birmingham last time out but that might prove to be the wrong decision against a power-packed Villa attack.

Bruce has plenty of ammunition to call on and his team had scored 11 goals in three games prior to the defeat at home to QPR. They can justify a generous price.

Recommendation
Aston Villa
1pt 9-5 bet365, 188Bet

Bet on this match at soccerbase.com

Key stat
Aston Villa have won five of their last seven away games.

Team news
Hull
James Weir, Moses Odubajo, Stephen Kingsley and Evandro are all absent but Nigel Adkins could recall Fraizer Campbell and Jon Toral.

Aston Villa
Steve Bruce will welcome back striker Jonathan Kodjia while defenders Neil Taylor, Alan Hutton and Axel Tuanzebe are all fit. This could come too soon for midfielder Glenn Whelan.

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