Aston Villa v Everton predictions: Away-day specialists set to shine

Free football tips, best bets and analysis for Aston Villa v Everton in the Premier League on Thursday.

Where to watch

Sky Sports Main Event & Premier League, 6pm Thursday

Best bet

Everton
1pt 31-20 Coral

Team news

Aston Villa
Top scorer Ollie Watkins is suspended, skipper Jack Grealish could make the bench. Morgan Sanson and Trezeguet are also out.

Everton
Abdoulaye Doucoure is fit. Yerry Mina and James Rodriguez are doubts.

Match preview

Twelve days after Aston Villa secured a welcome 2-1 win at Goodison Park, Everton are worth backing to get their revenge in the away leg of a quickfire Premier League double-header.

Villa's success at Merseyside was a relief for Dean Smith, who had seen his team win just one of their previous top-flight assignments.

But Everton on the road are a different animal altogether from Everton at Goodison, and Carlo Ancelotti's men are the bet to rack up an astonishing 12th away league win of the season, a record bettered only by Manchester City.

Villa have definitely struggled since Jack Grealish limped off the scene and although he has resumed training, this game comes too early for the England man to return to the starting line-up. In his absence, Villa have won just 27 percent of matches - with him in the side they won 53 percent.

That's quite a drop, although another talisman, Ollie Watkins, had risen to the challenge of starring in his skipper's absence. However, their 13-goal top scorer is also missing, courtesy of a red card flashed at him in the 3-1 loss against Manchester United on Sunday.

Minus two of their attacking gems Villa will be relying heavily on Emi Martinez and his defensive colleagues, and it's worth noting they haven't kept a clean sheet in eight and the ex-Arsenal glovesmith is making far more saves than he should be.

The Clarets have won just six times at Villa Park whereas Everton's only away defeat in the last six months came at Chelsea.

And Ancelotti does have all of his attacking tools to call upon and is doubtless thrilled to see Jordan Pickford and the defence behaving well with clean sheets in five of their last six away games, the most recent of which was a 1-0 win at West Ham. After a win at West Ham his team should feel that nowhere is off limits.

Key stat

Everton have lost only one of their last 13 away matches.

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