In-form Aston Villa tackle a Leeds aspect who’ve misplaced 4 of their previous 5 video games. BBC Sport examines a number of the key themes earlier than Sunday’s match.
Leeds return to Elland Street after back-to-back losses at and , having conceded three objectives in every defeat. Underneath-pressure boss Daniel Farke instructed BBC Radio 5 Reside this week that it has in all probability been his aspect’s , including the Whites “have to point out a little bit of a response”.
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However the German supervisor additionally requested followers to see the larger image, telling Sky Sports activities “after we beat , folks mentioned survival was confirmed and now everyone seems to be panicking about relegation”.
That is the primary recreation in a testing run of fixtures for Farke’s workforce, with subsequent weekend’s journey to adopted by residence matches in opposition to and .
Leeds have struggled away from residence this time period, claiming their solely factors in a 3-1 win at backside aspect , however have misplaced simply as soon as at Elland Street.
Nonetheless, goalscoring stays a serious concern. Their tally of 10 objectives is the joint-second lowest within the Premier League after 11 video games, with poor ending recurrently letting them down.
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They’ve transformed simply 5 of twenty-two ‘large probabilities’, as categorised by Opta, equal to 22.7%. The one Premier League aspect with a worse file this season are opponents Aston Villa.
[BBC]
Is Villa’s resurgence sustainable?
Aston Villa didn’t win any of their opening 5 league fixtures however have 5 victories of their subsequent six video games, together with a 4-0 triumph in opposition to final outing.
Supervisor Unai Emery hailed that efficiency as “actually unbelievable”, praising his aspect’s dedication, vitality and reference to the house supporters.
A key characteristic of Villa’s enchancment has been objectives from distance. Three of the objectives in opposition to the Cherries got here from exterior the penalty space, taking their general complete to seven, the best complete within the Premier League.
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The Villans additionally boast the league’s highest shot conversion charge from exterior the field (15.6%), a stark distinction to their determine of 8.1% for efforts inside the realm, which is the bottom within the high flight.
Whereas Villa’s long-range purple patch has fuelled their revival, whether it is to be sustainable they might want to create higher-quality probabilities nearer to objective. Emery’s aspect have managed 20 photographs on the right track from contained in the field this time period, fewer than every other aspect.
That features solely 4 from Ollie Watkins, who scored 16 league objectives final season however has netted simply as soon as up to now.
[BBC]