Wolverhampton Wanderers entertain local rivals Aston Villa looking for revenge after recently losing their Carabao Cup meeting. There should be some optimism of doing so, on account of a six-match unbeaten Premier League (PL) run (W2, D4). But Wolves have struggled to win games this campaign, drawing the highest number of games in Europe’s top-five leagues (D7), with the last six of those ending 1-1 after they conceded the first goal.

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Molineux has been kind to Wolves since its 2017/18 PL promotion (W11, D7, L6), although they’ve won just one of their last five in the league (W1, D3, L1). They remain unbeaten this season when a pre-match PL favorite (W1, D3), after registering a 76.92% W/D record at home last season (W7, D3, L3) when also favored.

Aston Villa led table-toppers Liverpool until the 87th-minute in their previous game before losing 2-1. That, along with defeat at Manchester City, is Villa’s only losses in their last seven in all competitions (W4, D1) and highlights a trend of positive results either way, with only three of their last 26 league clashes ending in a draw.

Away form has been poor, however, with four defeats in five PL away contests this season (W1), although three of those came to teams that finished in the top-five last season. Much of the damage has been done in the second half as Villa are the only PL team not to have conceded a first-half away goal (GF:4), but have a negative -7 in the second period. [Read more…]