Fulham vs Aston Villa Betting Pick | English Premier

English Premier

2011-08-13 - Fulham vs Aston Villa

A Sports Betting Pick by Auls

Fulham v Aston Villa
Football : English Premier League
Saturday 13 August 2011 - Kickoff 3pm

Fulham

Fulham may feel they have a slight advantage at this early stage of the season as their team have already played a number of European games. While the opposition was questionable, we have seen in the past how teams taking part in the early rounds of European competition have had an edge over their rivals in the early weeks of the season.

Martin Jol took over at Craven Cottage over the Summer when Mark Hughes decided to depart- Jol was originally the first choice to replace Roy Hodgson last Summer but was not allowed to talk to the West London club by his employers of the time. Since the Dutchman has arrived, Fulham have lost a couple of players and they have brought in the likes of Pajtim Kasami and John Arne Riise.

The Cottagers finished a very respectable 8th place in the Premier League last season as they built on the foundations left over by Roy Hodgson. They remain tough to beat at Craven Cottage and compiled a 8-7-4 record there last season, scoring 30 goals and conceding 23.

Fulham have lost just 1 of their last 9 home games in the Premier League and they have won 6 of those games.

Bobby Zamora is fit to lead the line for Fulham. Simon Davies is out through injury and Fulham's new signings Riise and Kutsami are in line to make their competitive debuts.

Aston Villa

Alex McCleish is another manager that will be guiding his team for the first time in a Premier League game. There has been plenty of discontent amongst the Aston Villa faithful that their manager comes in from their local rivals Birmingham City, especially considering he took them down to the Championship last season.

McCleish replaces Gerard Houllier, another unpopular manager, and has made a couple of decent signings in the forms of Shay Given and Charles N'Zogbia. Unfortunately, he has also overseen a period where Ashley Young and Stewart Downing have both moved on and it is hard to tell where Villa stand. Marc Albrighton should get plenty more opportunities in this new season, while Stephen Ireland has come back from his time on loan at Newcastle United.

Villa actually finished 1 place behind Fulham last season in 9th place, but for a long period it looked like they were in real danger of finishing in the bottom 3. Darren Bent was an inspired signing in the January transfer window and they will look for him to continue scoring the goals to help the team move up the table.

They will also want to improve on a disappointing away record that read 4-5-10, scoring 22 goals and conceding 40. Only 3 teams conceded more away goals than Villa last season.

Carlos Cuellar is out, but there is good news that Darren Bent and James Collins are both fit to start. Given and N'Zogbia will be given their debuts.

Head to Head

Both League fixtures ended in draws between the sides last season.

Fulham have only lost 1 of their last 7 home games against Villa. Fulham had won back to back home games against Villa before losing and then drawing the last 2.

Prediction

I think Aston Villa have taken a step back from last season following the sales of Young and Downing and I think this will be a tough season for Alex McCleish considering the sentiments his appointment got from the Villa Park faithful.

Fulham have a very good chance to open their season with a win as they have a few competitive games under their belt while there has not been as much of a personnel change since Martin Jol took over. That means there is still some consistency in the squad and the players will know each others game.

The team will also receive a boost by having Bobby Zamora back after he missed long chunks of last season with injuries. Zamora leads the line very well and allows the likes of Clint Dempsey and Damien Duff to work off him.

I expect the Villa defensive record to improve with the signing of Shay Given, but I think they are in line for a tough start and a close loss.

The Statistics :

FULHAM LAST SIX HOME FORM
	DATE	RESULT		OPPOSITION
	2011-05-22	D	2-2	H v Arsenal
	2011-05-09	L	2-5	H v Liverpool
	2011-04-27	W	3-0	H v Bolton
	2011-04-03	W	3-0	H v Blackpool
	2011-03-05	W	3-2	H v Blackburn
	2011-02-14	D	0-0	H v Chelsea

ASTON_VILLA LAST SIX AWAY FORM
	DATE	RESULT		OPPOSITION
	2011-05-15	W	1-2	A v Arsenal
	2011-04-30	L	2-1	A v WBA
	2011-04-16	W	1-2	A v West_Ham
	2011-04-02	D	2-2	A v Everton
	2011-03-05	L	3-2	A v Bolton
	2011-02-12	D	1-1	A v Blackpool

HEAD TO HEAD FULHAM v ASTON_VILLA
DATE	HOME	SCORE	AWAY
2010-11-06	Fulham	1-1	Aston_Villa
2010-01-30	Fulham	0-2	Aston_Villa
2009-05-09	Fulham	3-1	Aston_Villa
2008-02-03	Fulham	2-1	Aston_Villa
2007-03-03	Fulham	1-1	Aston_Villa
2005-12-28	Fulham	3-3	Aston_Villa