Unai Emery believes his Aston Villa side have restored confidence after returning to winning ways in the Premier League against Brentford in midweek.
Ahead of their triumph over the Bees on Wednesday, Villa were winless in eight games in all competitions before first-half goals from Morgan Rogers, Ollie Watkins and Matty Cash sealed an impressive victory.
The win saw Villa move up to seventh in the table and four points adrift of the top four, and Emery believes his team’s latest result has given them a solid foundation to build on heading into the busy festive period, as they prepare to face Southampton on Saturday.
“We broke a spell of bad results we were having,” the Villa boss said “We started the first five or 10 minutes not in control of the game but then progressively we controlled.
“Today we achieved those three points, and it has given us confidence again, but even like that it’s not enough. We have to keep going and think about the next match against Southampton on Saturday.
“The message was to try to focus on each match, try to forget the table. How we can recover confidence and feel comfortable at home. Wednesday was a fantastic match.”
But at the other end of the table, Southampton were dealt their 11th defeat of the season, losing 5-1 to Enzo Maresca’s in-form Chelsea side on Wednesday.
Saints entered the game without the likes of Taylor Harwood-Bellis, Tyler Dibling and Flynn Downes due to suspension, with Jack Stephens not helping their cause by being shown his second red card of the season after pulling Marc Cucurella’s hair at 3-1 down.
Despite the result, head coach Russell Martin was proud of his team, and firmly believes that the return of suspended players will make the difference this Saturday.
“I’m obviously very disappointed and hurt at the result,” Martin reflected. “But I’m really proud of the players and really grateful to them for the way they played in the first half-hour – an incredible number of opportunities in their box and the incredible courage to take the ball.
“We have to put into perspective we’re playing against one of the best teams in the country at the moment with some real attacking talent, but then, of course, we go down to 10 men for over an hour. Against a team like that, it’s difficult.
“As long as they keep giving us that, they are giving everything in some big moments, and then we have five big players ready to come back very soon who were sitting behind us and couldn’t play but have been important for us.”
PLAYERS TO WATCH
Aston Villa – Ollie Watkins
Watkins has been involved in 10 goals in his last five Premier League appearances against promoted clubs, scoring four and assisting six.
He has also netted five goals in his last six home Premier League appearances and has 36 goals overall at Villa Park – the only Villans player with more home goals than him is Dwight Yorke (37).
Southampton – Adam Armstrong
Armstrong has two goals in his last three appearances on home soil, but his struggles in front of goal have come away from St Mary’s in the top-flight.
He scored in his first ever away Premier League appearance for Southampton in August 2021 against Everton, but has since gone 32 away games without scoring, having 51 shots with an expected goals (xG) total of 4.7 without finding the net across those matches.
MATCH PREDICTION: ASTON VILLA WIN
Villa have won their last three Premier League games against Southampton (all without conceding), more than they had in their previous 13 against them (W2 D3 L8).
They are also unbeaten in their last six home Premier League matches (W3 D3) and have scored 85 goals in 39 home games under Emery, the fourth-most home goals since Emery’s first game in charge at Villa Park in November 2022.
The Villans have won five of their last eight Premier League matches against sides starting the day bottom of the league (D2 L1), though their one defeat in this run was at Villa Park, losing 1-0 to West Ham in August 2022.
Having been unbeaten in six consecutive away league games against Villa between 2013 and 2020, Southampton have lost their last two visits by an aggregate score of 5-0.
Southampton are also winless in their last 14 Premier League away games (D3 L11), since a 1-0 win at Chelsea in February 2023. Indeed, no side has won fewer points on the road in the top flight this term than Saints (one).
They are the only side yet to score a first-half away goal in the Premier League this season – the Saints have also had the fewest shots (29) and fewest shots on target (five) in the first 45 minutes of away games of any side this campaign.
OPTA WIN PROBABILITY
Aston Villa – 64.4%
Draw – 18.9%
Southampton – 16.8%
