Two teams that will surely be happy that international football interrupted their season will renew their rivalry at Villa Park this Saturday as Aston Villa take on Crystal Palace.
The hosts have suffered four successive defeats prior to the suspension of club action and their visitors have managed victory in only one top-tier fixture this season.
After 1,026 matches as a manager, Aston Villa boss Unai Emery recorded four successive defeats from their disappointing team for the first time as the team’s performance dwindled towards the final international in 2024 break.
Villa’s hopes of evening up last season’s results this term have been severely dented by a poor run of form that started with the EFL Cup loss to Crystal Palace last month, the last saw Villa lose the perfect record in the Champions League and occupy the 9th position in the Premier League.
In their previous encounter the Birmingham club has lost 2-0 to Liverpool at Anfield notching up yet another failure in their 24 year-long streak of losses to teams outside the top two in the away fixtures.
However, they have gone five games without a victory, but they are still reasonably comfortable in both domestic and European football so they will be aiming to get this win this weekend before Juve arrives.
This is because only about four points are between the third and 13th placed teams in English Premier League and the Villans can therefore transform their fortunes within a few games.
Thus, having won eleven out of the overall twelve Premier League home fixtures against Crystal Palace to boot screaming six goals in a return, history will indeed favor Villa when the Eagles visit Villa Park.
Ever since coming from behind to thrash Aston Villa 5-0 on the final day of the previous season, Palace are now eyeing a successive league victories over their second-city counterparts for the first time in the past ten years.
Due to their most recent loss, Palace is currently in the relegation zone and has only scored seven points this season, which is only the second time they have done so at this juncture in a Premier League campaign.
During a week or two of downtime, Glasner's job has unavoidably been questioned, but the Austrian coach, who has prevailed in both of his prior conflicts with Emery, is still in his current position.
Amadou Onana missed Belgium's second UEFA Nations League match due to a foot injury, while Jacob Ramsey was substituted off against Liverpool, adding to Aston Villa's recent absence list.
It is unclear how the visitors' engine room will be set up this weekend after Oliver Glasner teamed Premier League rookie Justin Devenny in midfield with captain and center defender Marc Guehi the previous time out.
French striker Jean-Philippe Mateta, who scored a hat-trick in the team's 5-0 victory last season, is certain to start up front. He has scored his most league goals (four) and produced his joint-most assists (two) against Aston Villa.
