ASTON VILLA PREVIEW AND PUB GUIDE: OLLIE WATKINS’ HIGH-FLYING SIDE HAVING AMAZING SEASON

They seem to be totally unaffected by the Thursday-Sunday schedule of playing in Europe and won their Europa Conference League group by a point.

Villa have only lost three league games this season, and only one since the start of September, have a 100% home record of eight wins, as part of a run of 15 consecutive home Premier League victories, and are unbeaten in their last eight matches in all competitions – five of those being league games.

Our old friend Ollie Watkins is the fifth top scorer in the Premier League this season with eight goals and six assists, and his ex-Bees team-mate Ezri Konsa received his first England call-up this season.

In fact, their only slip-up so far came in the Carabao Cup, where they went out at their first hurdle – beaten 2-1 at home by Everton in round three.

All this after being beaten 5-1 at Newcastle on the opening day of the season. Their only other defeats have come at Liverpool (3-0) and Nottingham Forest (2-0).

This is Villa’s fifth season back in the Premier League, after winning promotion via the play-offs in 2019. They finished in the bottom half of the table in the first three, including an 11th-place finish two years ago, which was their best in the top flight since 2010/11, but surpassed that last season by coming seventh.

Apart from their three seasons in the Championship from 2016, Villa had only been outside the top division for one season after 1975 following eight years in the old Division Two and Three as the 1960s became the 70s.

This weekend is the first of a run of five when Brentford are not playing on the Saturday. Our only Saturday game in that time is the one at Crystal Palace on 30 December.

WHO’S IN CHARGE 

Unai Emery replaced Steven Gerrard as Villa head coach in October last year.

Emery left Spanish side Villarreal to move to the Midlands after winning the Europa League with them by beating Manchester United in the 2021 final.

The Europa League has become a favourite competition for Emery, who also won it three years in a row with Sevilla.

This is not his first job in England as he had an 18-month spell at Arsenal, who he also led to the Europa League final, this time losing to Chelsea.

Among the other clubs he has managed are Valencia, Spartak Moscow and Paris St Germain, where he won the treble of league and both domestic cup competitions in 2017/18.

His playing career was spent mostly in Spain’s second division, before it was ended early by a knee injury.

WE’VE MET BEFORE

Brentford have a good recent record against Aston Villa, with our defeat last October our first against them in nine games from 2016.

In our Premier League debut season, we took four points off them, although last term we only earned one.

Our trip to Villa Park at the end of August 2021 was only our third Premier League game and just the 13th league meeting between the sides.

Ivan Toney gave us a seventh-minute lead with his first Premier League goal, after Pontus Jansson played a Sergi Canos cross into his path, but Emiliano Buendia equalised with a fierce shot from the edge of the penalty area six minutes later, and the match finished 1-1.

Our trip to Villa Park last season was slightly different. They had sacked Steven Gerrard following a Thursday night defeat at Fulham before facing us on the Sunday. And they came out at a packed Villa Park fired up and blew us away with three goals in the first 14 minutes.

Leon Bailey opened the scoring and then Danny Ings struck twice, the second from the penalty spot. Ollie Watkins completed the scoring just before the hour mark as Villa cruised to a 4-0 victory.

The return in late April ultimately proved decisive in deciding European qualification as we were denied victory by a late goal.

Ivan Toney had put us ahead in the 65th minute with his 19th Premier League goal of the season, but Douglas Luiz equalised from close range in the 87th minute as it finished 1-1.

We finished the campaign two points behind Villa, but if we had held on to win, our final positions could well have been reversed.

We had the better of our Championship matches at the end of the last decade.

In 2016/17, we drew 1-1 at Villa Park after John Egan hit a late equaliser to cancel out Jonathan Kodjia’s early opener, while two goals from Lasse Vibe and one from Nico Yennaris gave us a 3-0 win in the return. While the match was taking place, Scott Hogan was signing for Villa and Sergi Canos was joining Brentford.

In the following season’s first meeting, the Bees earned a 0-0 draw at Villa Park in a match we could have won.

Villa keeper Sam Johnstone was the home side’s hero – twice denying Ollie Watkins, while Nico Yennaris, Yoann Barbet and Neal Maupay all went close.

The Boxing Day return was moved to an evening game as it was shown live on Sky, and a goal in each half from Romaine Sawyers and Lasse Vibe – either side of an equalising header from Josh Onomah – gave us a 2-1 win, our second successive festive victory, and extended Villa’s winless run to five matches

Villa snatched a last-gasp point in our first meeting in 2018/19 on a Wednesday night in August, as a see-saw game ended 2-2.

Neal Maupay put us ahead midway through the first half but Jonathan Kodjia equalised before the break. Maupay restored our lead in the 82nd minute, and we seemed on course for a rare away win before Kodjia struck in the fifth minute of injury-time

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