Brentford vs Aston Villa predictions: Goals could be scarce in west London
- Under 2.5 goals has landed in each of Aston Villa's last three matches
- Brentford have lost four of their last five matches
- Recommended bet: Under 2.5 goals
Aston Villa have marked themselves out as genuine Premier League title challengers with victories over Manchester City and Arsenal and Unai Emery's impressive outfit will bid to keep the run going when they head to Brentford.
However, while the Villans have been brilliant at Villa Park this season, their road form has not been quite as spectacular so Brentford will hope to get back to winning ways following a lean spell.
Team news
Brentford are dealing with an injury crisis and their situation worsened earlier in the week when head coach Thomas Frank revealed that Bryan Mbeumo will miss three months following ankle surgery.
Mathias Jensen and Josh Dasilva are also absent for the Bees, although Nathan Collins is in line for a return to the matchday squad.
Villa will be without Lucas Digne and Douglas Luiz, who are both serving a one-match ban, while Robin Olsen, Bertrand Traore, Tyrone Mings and Emi Buendia remain absent.
Emery is sweating on the fitness of star midfielder Youri Tielemans and winger Leon Bailey, although the Villa supremo remains hopeful that both will be available.
The stats
Aston Villa have claimed 36 points from 16 Premier League matches this season but just 12 of them have come on the road and their away record stands at W3 D2 L3, whereas they have won all eight matches at Villa Park.
Brentford have claimed just one point from six matches against the teams who went into the weekend in the Premier League's top eight and that came in a 2-2 draw at home to Tottenham in August.
The Bees are without their two top scorers in Mbeumo (seven goals) and Jensen (four). Only Yoane Wissa and Neal Maupay, who are likely to lead the line for the hosts, have scored more than one goal this term from the rest of the squad.
Aston Villa have scored just 10 goals away from home this season compared to 25 at Villa Park while their away matches have averaged 2.5 goals per game compared to 3.5 at home.
Prediction
Villa have been in magnificent form in recent weeks but a short Europa Conference League turnaround, coupled with Thomas Frank's expected pragmatic approach, could see them struggle to break down Brentford, who will probably be happy to claim a point.
Given the Bees' lack of attacking options, Frank could opt to switch from a 4-3-3 formation to the 5-3-2 which he has deployed to reasonable success against bigger clubs, and that is a term which certainly can be applied to Villa in their current guise.
Villa have been involved in some exciting contests this season but their last three matches failed to eclipse the 2.5-goal mark and there is every chance of that trend continuing at the Gtech Community Stadium.
With question marks not only over Brentford's attacking credentials but also over the Villans' road form, goals could be in short supply.
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