Aston Villa and Chelsea FC have a lot in common as they head into the penultimate weekend of the Premier League season. Both will play on Friday night, and take on a side that has reached the Europa League Final this season, despite having an atrocious league campaign. Villa welcome in Tottenham Hotspur, who currently sit 17th in the table while Chelsea takes on 16th place Manchester United. The Villans and Blues are level on points with 63, but it’s the southwest London club who are slotted in the fifth and final Champions League qualification slot.
Tottenham Hotspur at Aston Villa FYIs
Kickoff: Fri. May 16, 7:30pm, Villa Park, Birmingham, UK
Team News: Tottenham Aston Villa
Starting XI Predictions: Tottenham Aston Villa
Google Result Probability: Tottenham 70% Draw 17% Aston Villa 13%
Premier League Standing: Tottenham 17th, 38 pts, LLLDL Aston Villa 6th, 63 pts, WWLWW
Villa will never catch Chelsea in the goal differential tie-breaker, because they are just too far behind, at a -12 disparity. So they’ll need Chelsea to drop points, and make sure they take the maximum from these last two.
Aston Villa Starting Lineup Prediction vs Tottenham Hotspur
Emiliano Martinez; Matty Cash, Ezra Konsa, Pau Torres, Lucas Digne; Boubacar Kamara, Youri Tielemans; Morgan Rogers, John McGinn, Marco Asensio; Ollie Watkins
Paul M. Banks is the Founding Editor of The Sports Bank. He’s also the author of “Transatlantic Passage: How the English Premier League Redefined Soccer in America,” and “No, I Can’t Get You Free Tickets: Lessons Learned From a Life in the Sports Media Industry.”
He currently contributes to USA Today’s NFL Wires Network. His past bylines include the New York Daily News, Sports Illustrated and the Chicago Tribune. His work has been featured in numerous outlets, including the Wall Street Journal, Forbes, the Washington Post and ESPN. You can follow him on Linked In and Twitter