English Premier
2025-08-23 - Brentford vs Aston Villa
A Sports Betting Pick by Auls
Football: English Premier League
Saturday 23rd August 2025 - Kick Off 3pm
Brentford
All of the concerns about Brentford ahead of this season came to fruition in a poor first half showing at the City Ground and they were well beaten by Nottingham Forest when all was said and done. Keith Andrews admitted his team had been a little 'naive' in the performance and this feels like an important game for Brentford after losing so many key members of the squad and management staff in the off-season.
Like with every season that Brentford have played in the Premier League, Keith Andrews will know the importance of the home form if the club are going to avoid dropping out of the Division. The 9-4-6 record at the Gtech Community Stadium was hugely impressive in the 2024/25 season, but this is a new look Brentford team and the supporters will need to get behind the players.
Brentford had won 4 Premier League games in a row before losing to rivals Fulham and that has led to a 3 game winless run in the top flight. The defeat to Fulham was at home and Brentford have won just 2 of their last 12 games here in all competitions, while The Bees have lost 7 times in that run.
Dango Outtara has been signed from Bournemouth and is set to make his debut, while Mikkel Damsgaard was absent last week to be with his wife as she was giving birth. Yoane Wissa continues to push for a move away from the club and is not available for selection.
Aston Villa
With one of the top managers not just in England, but in Europe, at the helm, Aston Villa fans have remained positive about their aspirations even with limited transfer activity in the off-season. Unai Emery is hoping to see his squad bolstered as the club navigate a tight PSR space, while he will also be demanding more from the players that are already at the club.
Last weekend saw Aston Villa put in a pretty limp performance against Newcastle United and they were incredibly fortunate to earn a point. Everyone associated with the club will be demanding a much better effort this weekend, but The Villans finished with an 8-2-9 away record last season.
Aston Villa managed to hang onto a point last Saturday and they have now lost 1 of their last 5 Premier League games, while earning 3 wins in that time. Since drawing at the Emirates Stadium, Aston Villa have played 8 away Premier League games and split those with wins and losses in half of those fixtures.
Ezri Konsa is suspended after being sent off last weekend. Pau Torres may come in for the centre half, while Emi Martinez is back from suspension. However, he may not be restored to the goalkeeper spot after Marco Bizot secured the clean sheet against Newcastle United.
Head to Head
Aston Villa did the Premier League double over Brentford last season, including a 0-1 win here.
Brentford had been unbeaten in 5 home games against Aston Villa, but have since suffered consecutive losses against them.
Prediction
One game does not make a season, but the performances from Brentford and Aston Villa are going to have to vastly improve from the opening weekend if they are going to achieve everything they want over the course of the next nine months.
There were definite concerns about Brentford having lost Bryan Mbeumo to Manchester United and having to bed in an inexperienced manager to replace Thomas Frank.
Keith Andrews has worked here for a year, but the absence of Yoane Wissa made the opening weekend that much tougher for the new manager and he was pretty unhappy with what he saw.
However, Brentford will have some attacking options available this weekend that were not available at the City Ground- Mikkel Damsgaard has been very influential at the Gtech Community Stadium, while Dango Outtara has Premier League experience with Bournemouth and does look a good fit.
Getting Thiago off of the mark last weekend is the one positive to take back to West London and Brentford will also know how difficult teams have found playing at their home Stadium.
Aston Villa have won on consecutive League visits, but both narrowly and Unai Emery cannot have been very happy with what he saw in the goalless draw with Newcastle United. It was only some inspired goalkeeping, and poor Newcastle United finishing, that earned Aston Villa the point and the lack of any bite in the final third will have been a huge worry.
The likes of Marcus Rashford and Marco Asensio have returned to clubs who had loaned them to Aston Villa in January, while the lack of investment has perhaps left the squad a touch stale.
In saying that, Aston Villa cannot be as poor as they were for a second week in a row and they can cause problems for Brentford.
There is still some real quality available to Unai Emery and the manager will have given the advice to make his team that much more threatening when going forward.
However, Brentford are also expected to be better with attacking reinforcements available, even without Yoane Wissa, and Keith Andrews will want his team to show off better defensive resiliency. The Bees can certainly make things tougher being back at home and Aston Villa may be a touch short at the prices being offered.
Teams are still finding their feet at this stage of the season so it is not easy to have a full read on these two.
Nervousness is potentially growing around Brentford with all the changes being made, but they should be better going forward in this fixture with the likes of Damsgaard and Outtara involved. Recent results against Aston Villa have not been the most positive, but this looks an opportunity for Brentford to at least secure a point and that feels the best play from a fixture featuring two teams that may take a bit of time to get up to full speed.
The Statistics :
| |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
The Pick :
Brentford 1-1 Aston Villa
