One of Aston Villa, West Brom, Derby County or Leeds United will be playing Premier League football next season.
Dean Saunders has expressed his worry for Aston Villa and Leeds United as they prepare for their playoff matches against West Brom and Derby, respectively.
The former striker admitted that he didn’t want Villa to come up against West Brom because of the ‘Premier League’ experience they have at their disposal, but he still backed them to make the final.
Added with that, Saunders believes, Leeds’ morale will be severely dented after they were beaten 3-2 by already-relegated and 10-man Ipswich Town on the final day of the regular season.
Speaking to The Final Word on TalkSport (05/05/2019 at 7:45 pm), Saunders has predicted that it will be a Villa and Derby County playoff final at Wembley.
“Well, if I am being honest if you had asked me which club do you not want to play against, I would have said West Brom,” Saunders told the Final Word. “I just think they are a good team with a lot of Premier League players that on their day can produce.
“It won’t be a big game for them. They have played Premier League football and they have got a lot in their squad. Villa are bang on form. They won 10 games on the bounce recently and are getting better.
“Well done to Frank Lampard, he has got them into the playoffs. It looked like he was going to miss out at one point. But they are playing Leeds. That result at Ipswich isn’t going to go down too well with morale. I think the final will be Villa and Derby and then I’m going to stay in bed, put the sheet over my head and wait for the result.”
There is no doubt that there will be high drama in the playoffs, especially considering the back stories that are emerging for these fixtures.
The Villa and West Brom game speaks for itself because both teams are Midland rivals. Added with that, Frank Lampard’s side were left unimpressed with that Spygate scandal from January.
Added with that, Villa and Leeds United recently competed in a game where Marcelo Bielsa allowed them to score an uncontested goal. If Villa play Derby in the final then there is no doubt that the game will be built up as Lampard against John Terry
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