English Premier
2026-01-07 - Crystal Palace vs Aston Villa
A Sports Betting Pick by Auls
Football: English Premier League
Wednesday 7th January 2025 - Kick Off 7:30pm
This game is live on TV
Crystal Palace
An important month is coming up for Crystal Palace as they look to turn things around following a poor run of form. The manager, Oliver Glasner, is almost certainly leaving the club at the end of the season and there are real reports linking him with the vacant job at Old Trafford, while Crystal Palace are not completely convinced that they can keep Captain Marc Guehi in this window.
He may be moving on in the summer, but Glasner wants to finish the year with Crystal Palace by adding to his successes and so he will be keen for additions and not losses in the squad. That makes it an important month for The Eagles who have dropped to 14th in the Premier League table, but who remain in touch with the European places and are still involved in FA Cup and Conference League competitions.
Crystal Palace conceded twice in the second half at Newcastle United on Sunday and that makes it 7 games without a victory in all competitions and 4 defeats in that run. They are back at Selhurst Park on Wednesday night and Crystal Palace have not won any of the last 6 games here in all competitions, whilst losing 3 Premier League fixtures in succession before the 1-1 draw with Fulham on New Year's Day.
Chris Richards, Nathaniel Clyne and Jefferson Lerma are all doubts, while Eddie Nketiah is set to miss out again.
Aston Villa
A long winning run came to an emphatic ending just days before the end of the 2025 calendar year, but credit has to be given to manager Unai Emery and his Aston Villa squad for picking themselves up immediately. It may have been easy to fall into a slight slump following the loss to Arsenal, but Aston Villa played really well in beating Nottingham Forest on Saturday.
They remain 3rd in the Premier League table and 6 points behind leaders Arsenal, but Emery has made it clear the focus is on returning to the Champions League. The side have an 11 point lead over Chelsea in 5th place with that in mind, but Unai Emery will want to make sure his players remain focused as they also have the Europa League resuming this month.
Aston Villa have won 18 of the last 21 games played in all competitions, although the exceptions have all been in defeats. They had won 5 in a row away from home in all competitions before capitulating in the second half of a 4-1 loss to Premier League leaders Arsenal.
Pau Torres, Tyrone Mings and Amadou Onana have all been ruled out.
Head to Head
Early season form was poor as far as Aston Villa are concerned and that included a thumping 0-3 defeat to Crystal Palace at Villa Park.
Oliver Glasner has managed Crystal Palace 6 times against Unai Emery's Aston Villa and has overseen 5 wins.
That includes thumping 5-0 and 4-1 home wins against Aston Villa.
Prediction
This looks an interesting fixture in the top flight on Wednesday and that is partly down to the fact that Aston Villa have found it very difficult to deal with Oliver Glasner's Crystal Palace.
You can say Aston Villa were out of form when losing 0-3 at home to Crystal Palace back in August, and The Eagles were flying at that point.
There is no doubt that the form has switched considerably since that fixture in August, but Oliver Glasner has overseen 5 wins and a draw against Unai Emery's Aston Villa since arriving at Selhurst Park. The thumping home wins cannot be dismissed easily and Crystal Palace also beat Aston Villa 3-0 in the FA Cup Semi Final last season.
Both goalscorers on that day are not available to Oliver Glasner on Wednesday, and unavailable Ismaila Sarr also scored in the win at Villa Park earlier this season.
However, Oliver Glasner will feel that his team have shown enough attacking intent even in this run of 7 games without a victory to believe they can give Aston Villa plenty to think about.
Unai Emery will be well aware of the record against Crystal Palace and will be looking to find solutions- his team have really struggled defensively against The Eagles and that is something that could be on show again.
In saying that, Aston Villa will feel they can get on the front foot and cause plenty of problems of their own.
Recent Crystal Palace home games have featured struggles for Oliver Glasner's men, but they have Brennan Johnson in the squad for this one and he can provide a bit more composure in the final third.
Both teams have scored in the last 6 away games played by Aston Villa and that looks like a trend that will continue considering how these two have matched up against one another over the last two years.
Since Oliver Glasner has been appointed manager of Crystal Palace, all 6 fixtures between these clubs have ended with at least three goals shared out and that looks likely again in this next meeting.
The Statistics :
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The Pick :
Crystal Palace 2-2 Aston Villa
