Aston Villa host Bournemouth on Sunday afternoon, both sides have been in good form and it should be a hotly contested encounter. The home side will be keen to bounce back after suffering their first Premier League defeat in five games at Anfield. 

It’s a similar story for Bournemouth, the visitors have been in great form this campaign, but also suffered a defeat in their last game, going down 3-1 to Manchester City at the Etihad Stadium, their first defeat in eight games.

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📂 Aston Villa v Bournemouth Cheat Sheet

📈 Aston Villa v Bournemouth Form & Tactics

Despite a dreadful start to the season, which saw Villa winless in their first five Premier League games, scoring just one goal, things have improved rather drastically for the hosts. Unai Emery is a superb manager, and it’s no surprise he’s been able to turn things around. 

However, Villa’s underlying data makes for some painful reading; they currently sit 19th in the xG table despite occupying 11th position in the league. The data is perhaps somewhat skewed because Villa were so ineffective offensively in the opening weeks of the season.

Defensively, Villa look a pretty solid team at this level, but they’ve struggled to create chances, racking up an xG for of 7.7 goals, their nine goals point to a slight overperformance. 

Bournemouth have found a way to keep clean sheets regardless of their high octane and expansive approach; it’s now four clean sheets across 10 Premier League games. 

The fascinating data point is that Bournemouth have lost just two Premier League games all season, away to Liverpool and Manchester City. Bournemouth are showing a real ability to be competitive with the teams around them and below them. The visitors are sitting 5th  in the league, and there will be genuine belief that they can mount a challenge for European football.

📔 Aston Villa v Bournemouth Formation & Team News

Unai Emery likes to set up in a 4-2-3-1 formation, it’s been slightly fluid and interchangeable with a 4-2-2-2/4-4-2 in recent weeks. The attacking players can often be utilised in different positions week to week, especially when Watkins isn’t playing. Amadou Onana and Boubacar Kamara provide defensive steel in the centre of the park, while Lucas Digne provides creativity and width from left back. 

Unai Emery is tactically very adaptable; he can often make drastic stylistic changes to cater for different opposition, sometimes they are super aggressive in and out of possession, sometimes very passive. 

Villa are boosted by the improving fitness of Youri Tielemans, the Belgian got a cameo against Maccabi Tel Aviv in the Europa League on Thursday night, but it’s unlikely he will start here. Andres Garcia is still out injured, while Tyrone Mings is still recovering from a hamstring injury. 

Andoni Iraola likes to employ a 4-2-3-1 formation. Bournemouth are ultra-aggressive off the ball and often go man-for-man to suffocate the opposition and pounce on mistakes. Athleticism and physicality are vital ingredients for his team, with players needing high fitness levels to carry out the game plan. Bournemouth are very fast in transition, and this is often spearheaded by the powerful and agile Antoine Semenyo. 

Bournemouth have a relatively clean bill of health, perhaps aided by having no European football. Tyler Adams is a slight injury doubt after picking up a knock in their game against Man City last week; he would be a key absentee.

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* All odds displayed correct at the time of publishing.