Aston Villa vs Tottenham Hotspur 16/02/20

16 February 2020

In-form Tottenham Hotspur return to Premier League (PL) action this weekend as they travel to Villa Park to take on unpredictable Aston Villa.

The hosts have endured mixed fortunes in their past five league outings (W2, D1, L2), with three of those results (win/loss) in that period yielding the identical 2-1 scoreline. Villa’s problems to maintain consistency see them hover just one point clear of the relegation zone, and that’s also thanks to their indifferent home form lately (W2, L3). Yet, the majority of Aston Villa’s PL points (68%) came at home (17 of 25), although only one of their five PL home triumphs saw them beat the upper-half-of-the-table side. Curiously, seven of the Lions’ ten top-flight home results (win/loss) have witnessed the winner on the day fail to keep a clean sheet, with two of Villa’s five league wins at this venue seeing them come from behind to seal three points.

Meanwhile, the visitors have won two consecutive PL matches ahead of this trip, with both of those successes seeing them score precisely two goals apiece and keep a clean sheet in the first 60 minutes of play. However, Spurs have picked up just one triumph in their past five PL road trips (D2, L2), drawing a blank in the last two. They are likely to improve their away form here, given that they’ve won all four of their previous top-flight trips to Aston Villa, scoring over 1.5 goals in each while keeping a clean sheet in three. But, Jose Mourinho’s side will have to avoid shipping the opening goal to boost their bid of winning this encounter, considering they returned just two points from five PL away matches in which they’ve conceded the first goal (D2, L3).