Expect goals when The Blades head to Brum.
The Championship is as zany as ever this season, with the battle for relegation, and particularly promotion, absolutely fascinating.
Sheffield United have the chance to leapfrog Leeds United and Norwich to reach the Championship’s summit on Friday, perhaps temporarily, following their trip to Villa Park.
The Blades, who have five wins in their last seven, look like a force to be reckoned with, although a few question marks still remain over their away form; just one win from their last four on the road – against a dire Wigan side – will give this strange Villa outfit plenty of hope.
Dean Smith’s men are turning into the league’s draw specialists – with six of their last 10 matches ending in stalemates. The Villans have lost just twice at home all season and, despite all the draws, are one of the Championship’s most exciting sides – scoring and conceding plenty.
With a result pretty much un-guessable, my first tip is for both teams to score and over 2.5 goals in the match.
Both teams have scored in 80% of Villa’s home matches, with 73% seeing over 2.5 goals. Considering United have netted 13 times in their last seven away games – with Billy Sharp in particularly good form – this one looks a real possibility.
Next, I have the last goal of the match to be scored between 76 minutes and full-time.
United have scored 12 goals during this period in the league – their most prosperous period – while Villa have netted 10 times.
Perhaps more importantly, it’s the part of the match both Villa and United have conceded the highest number of goals – 12 and nine respectively.
This one looks bound to land.
Last but not least, I’m backing Tammy Abraham to score first.
The Villa striker is the Championship’s joint-top scorer (with United’s Billy Sharp on 19 goals), and while there are a number of FGS candidates, I reckon it’s Abraham who will strike first.
Villa have scored first in 60% of their home games, while United have conceded first in 60% of their away games – so the stats are certainly on our side here.
Considering he has six of Villa’s last seven goals, Abraham to score first looks a great bet.
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