Aston Villa welcome Liverpool FC to Villa park this Sunday hoping to improve on their head-to-head matches between the two clubs, Villa recorded their first win on the last day of the season with a winning goal from Liverpool’s, well he was ours at the time, Stewart Downing.
Villa fans need to go back further into the record books to find their last win on home soil prior to last May’s first win in 13 meetings at Villa Park. The 1997/98 campaign for their previous win when Stan Collymore scored a double. Liverpool have done an excellent job in containing Villa away from home, conceding four goals in their last 12 league trips since a 4-2 win in November 1998.
Here is the run both teams enter Sunday’s game:
LAST FIVE GAMES
VILLA………………..WLDLW
LIVERPOOL……….WDWLW
Villa have conceded the highest % of goals from corners of any team in the Premier League (32%). Liverpool have drawn just one of their last 20 Premier League away matches.
Both teams have played equal amount of games but Liverpool have the best goals record scoring an averaging 1.2 goals a game and conceding 13 goals which is less than a goal a game with (0.87). Aston Villa goals record stands at 18 goals for and 19 goals conceeded this translates to 1.2 goals a game but Villa’s against column is far greater with 1.26 compared to Liverpool’s (0.87).
Liverpool and Aston Villa are 7 points a drift with Villa currently occupying 9th position and Liverpool find themselves in 6th position.
Stewart Downing makes his Villa Park return from this summers transfer window. Earlier in the window Aston Villa lost Ashley Young to Manchester United and were reluctant to see Stewart Downing leave. It was a game of cat and mouse between the two clubs and the player. Downing was adamant that he wanted to move away from the Aston Villa and the fee of £20million was agreed which was placed on his head and Downing forced the deal threw handing a transfer request with meant he forfeited his loyalty bonus.
Downing has featured in 13 games this season and featured with 2 substitution appearances and has achieved a 76% pass rate completing a total of 659 with 503 total accurate passes via throw-in’s and goal kicks. The shocking statistic is in 1139 minutes of play on-field Stewart Downing has only made 12 tackles in 13 games with a success rate of 75%. At the moment the statistics are pretty one sided in the Season 2010/2011 Stewart Downing featured in all of Aston Villa’s Premier League games in Downings last season at Aston Villa he managed to score 7 goals which worked out the a goal every 489 minutes. Downing also contribution with a notched up 7 assists also with 6 of which coming from open play and 1 coming from a set piece.
Since Stewart Downing’s £20million transfer from Aston Villa to Liverpool, Liverpool fans I have spoken to have said that when Downing arrived at Liverpool he started off with good performances but has faded into the team and can wander within games. They believe that Downing is a confidence sort of player and needs time but has quality.
We’ll leave you with some stats from last years game where Downing scored the winner at the far post. These stats are from the Quick Stats area in the EPLIndex.com Stats Centre. If you wish to gain access to these Opta stats (which are updated throughout game and at full time) you can subscribe now to get access!
