West Brom v Aston Villa: Premier League predictions, free betting tips & TV

Free football tips, best bets and analysis for West Brom v Aston Villa in the Premier League on Sunday.

Where to watch

BT Sport 1, 7.15pm Sunday

Best bet

Aston Villa
1pt 19-20 general

Team news

West Brom
Matheus Pereira is suspended and Kyle Bartley, Conor Townsend, Sam Field and Hal Robson-Kanu are all out injured.

Aston Villa
Douglas Luiz and Matty Cash return from suspension. Ross Barkley and Ezri Konsa may also recover from injury and illness respectively. Trezeguet and Wesley remain sidelined.

Match preview

Big Sam is back for yet another Premier League recovery mission, this time hoping to guide West Brom to survival.

However, the new Baggies boss may face an unhappy start to his Hawthorns tenure at home to West Midlands rivals Aston Villa.

Just over two years on from his sacking at Everton, Sam Allardyce returns to the English top flight as Slaven Bilic’s replacement, charged with the task of steering the Baggies away from the drop.

Although a regular success story when it comes to relegation scraps, Big Sam has a big job on his hands at West Brom, who have picked up just seven points from their opening 13 games since promotion.

Allardyce’s first job will be to tighten up the Premier League’s dodgiest defence – they have conceded 26 goals in 13 games – but they could have asked for an easier opponent to try out their new plans against than Aston Villa.

The suspension to Matheus Pereira also considerably reduces the attacking quality available to Allardyce, who will be dependent on Conor Gallagher and Grady Diangana to spark in the Brazilian’s absence.

Villa were frustrated by Burnley in a goalless draw at Villa Park on Thursday, but they won the shot count 27-6 and the leaky Baggies may not offer the same resilience as the Clarets.

Villa have found it easier to perform on their Premier League travels and have won four of their five away games.

Victories to nil at Leicester, Arsenal and Wolves highlight Villa’s defensive resilience and their quality in attack is clear for all to see with Jack Grealish pulling the strings and Ollie Watkins firing in the goals.

With Chelsea loanee Ross Barkley also eyeing a return to action, Villa have creativity in spades and they look stronger than their Midlands rivals in virtually every department.

Key stat

Aston Villa have kept six clean sheets in just 11 Premier League games.

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