Villa Park will play host to Dean Smith’s side up against Brighton this weekend.
Sky Sports pundit Charlie Nicholas has given his verdict about what he’s seen so far Aston Villa this season and tipped them to survive in the Premier League, even though he has deemed them “vulnerable” defensively.
Dean Smith’s charges currently sit 15th in the Premier League table with eight points from eight games, having scored 13 and shipped 12, and went into the international break on the back of a 5-1 hammering of fellow 2018-19 promotees Norwich City.
Although it took Villa a little while to find their feet following their return to the top flight, the win at Carrow Road suggested that the team is now gelling nicely following a summer overhaul of the squad, although the Villans will encounter harder opponents than the defensively depleted Canaries.
“The last couple of weeks with the international football, I have found myself looking at the stats, and I am not a stats man,” Nicholas wrote on Sky Sports News ahead of the Villa Park meeting with Brighton this weekend.
“With Aston Villa, John McGinn has done well, Jack Grealish has the quality, Wesley will and has scored if given the service, and they play wide men. There is a lot that I like about Villa. Defensively they are vulnerable, but they will be safe.”
Nicholas also believed that the game would finish as a “comfortable Villa win”, predicting a 3-1 victory for the hosts, who travel to Manchester City next Saturday and wrap up the month with a midweek home game against Wolves in the League Cup.
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