Premier League Relegation Battle

We were treated to a fairly entertaining mid-week game at Villa Park, as a Benteke hat-trick earned Aston Villa a 3-3 draw with QPR, who had led twice in the game despite only having 36% of the possession. But what does that do in terms of the relegation battle? Nothing, is the short answer.

For me, I believe Leicester and QPR are the certain teams to go down. But for the final team, it's any one of three; Burnley, Hull, or Villa.

There's no doubting Hull have the toughest task coming to the end of the season, as they still have Southampton, Liverpool, Arsenal, Spurs and Manchester United to play, in their remaining 7 fixtures.
Villa are another side who don't have it to easy in the closing stages of this seasons Premier League, and still have to face Spurs, Manchester City, Southampton, and a very interesting final game of the season against relegation rivals Burnley.

Hull have really disappointed me this season, and I expected much more from a few of their players, including Livermore, Abel Hernandez, and Ramirez, but it's just not worked out. I like Steve Bruce, but in my opinion, Hull are going to struggle to get many points, if they don't change drastically, and they could be the ones to go.

Premier League - Battle for Survival

Tuesday night sees another tough battle for Premier League survival, as Villa host QPR at Villa Park.




QPR recorded just their second away win this season in the Premier League at the weekend, with a 4-1 win against West Brom, and that will surely give them huge confidence going into tonight's fixture.

Aston Villa sit just above the drop zone, in 17th, 2 points clear of Burnley, after a 3-1 away loss to Manchester United over the Easter Weekend. 

Villa have a good record at home, against tonight's opponents, having won five, and drawn one of the last 6 league games, and a win would move them 5 points clear of the relegation zone, with just 6 games remaining. 

Both sides are without key players for tonight's game, with Alan Hutton, Scott Sinclair and Ashley Westwood unavailable for Villa, and Vargas, Yun Suk Young and Leroy Fer missing for QPR.

Despite an impressive win at the weekend for QPR, it's hard to see another victory coming away from home so soon, and they are yet to win 2 games in a row this season, and haven't had back-to-back away wins in the top flight, since 1995!

KEY STATS - OPTA

Christian Benteke has scored four goals in his last four league games for Tim Sherwood’s side, more than he had netted in his previous 21 (3).

Aston Villa have scored just seven goals in their last 20 Premier League matches against London sides, and never more than once in a match in that time (W2 D3 L15).

QPR’s last league win at Villa Park came back in March 1992 (1-0). QPR have scored in each of their last 12 Premier League matches against Aston Villa.

Aston Villa have won just one of their last eight Premier League home games (W1 D3 L4). Villa have failed to find the net in four of these eight matches.

PREDICTION

It's a really tough game to call, and a draw doesn't really do either team any good. I can see Villa just edging QPR, and enhancing their survival chances, which would have been Sherwood's key objective when taking charge.

VILLA WIN (23/20 bet365)- 1-0/2-1 (13/2 - 17/2 bet365)