Southampton v Aston Villa predictions and free football tips: Villa look value

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

Where to watch

Sky Sports Main Event & Premier League, 8pm Saturday

Best bet

Aston Villa
2pts 8-5 Betfred, Hills

Team news

Southampton
Ryan Bertrand returns from suspension and Kyle Walker-Peters could also be available. Nathan Redmond is pushing for a start.

Aston Villa
New midfielder Morgan Sanson should be in the squad. Anwar El Ghazi and Trezeguet are options for Dean Smith if he wants to freshen up his attack.

Match preview

Southampton's home Premier League meeting with Aston Villa has a lot to live up to after November's reverse fixture at Villa Park produced seven goals.

The Saints' 4-3 win was admittedly less exciting than the scoreline suggests as they were 4-0 up inside an hour and two of Villa's goals came in injury-time.

Villa responded brilliantly to that defeat, winning 3-0 at Arsenal next time out, and it could be a similar story at St Mary's where Dean Smith's men are bidding to bounce back from Tuesday's 3-2 defeat at Burnley.

Smith found the loss at Turf Moor hard to take, saying afterwards that his side "should have been out of sight" at half-time instead of leading only 1-0.

Clarets goalkeeper Nick Pope had to be in inspired form to deny Villa, who had ten shots on target to their hosts' five after another impressive display from striker Ollie Watkins and attacking midfielders Jack Grealish, Bertrand Traore and Ross Barkley.

On paper Villa are going through a sticky patch, by their own standards this season, with their only win in their last five league games coming against troubled Newcastle.

However, the first three matches of that run were a 1-1 draw at Chelsea and narrow defeats away to Manchester United and Manchester City so they are worth backing to take maximum points on the south coast.

Both sides go into this game on 29 points, although Villa have played one game fewer, and both sets of supporters must have enjoyed the first half of the 2020-21 campaign.

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Bookmakers find it hard to separate the teams in the match betting but Villa's vibrant attacking unit gives them the edge over a Saints side who have been short of goals in recent weeks.

Ralph Hasenhuttl's men are still churning out decent results, beating Liverpool 1-0 on January 4 and knocking Arsenal out of the FA Cup by the same scoreline.

However, they needed an own goal from Gabriel to break the deadlock against a much-changed Gunners line-up and Arsenal swiftly avenged that defeat in the league on Tuesday, winning 3-1 despite going behind to a third-minute goal from Stuart Armstrong.

Five of Saints' eight league wins have come against teams in the bottom six and they have struggled defensively against the stronger sides in the Premier League, conceding 21 goals in 11 games against top-half clubs such as Villa.

If the visitors create as many chances as they did at Burnley then a Saints side short of confidence in front of goal could be in big trouble.