Aston Villa vs. Newcastle United – EPL, December 4, 2020

This game is in danger of being postponed because of a spate of positive COVID tests at Newcastle. The entire first-team squad is in self-isolation at the moment and, if the fixture does go ahead, Steve Bruce’s side will not have trained together, as usual, this week.

Villa will be looking to get back to winning ways after losing the last two and four of the last five.

It is probably a good idea to get in early with the odds for this one if you fancy Aston Villa to win, as the home win price will shorten the longer the week goes on. Newcastle is already dealing with an ever-growing injury list, and the positive COVID tests threaten to severely deplete the squad ahead of Friday’s game.

Aston Villa will feel very unlucky to come away from the London Stadium without any points on Monday after missing a penalty and falling foul of just the latest in a long line of EPL VAR controversies. Striker Ollie Watkins was the hardest done by in that game, and that should mean that he is raring to go for Friday’s fixture.

But Villa has lost its way on the league over the last month or so. After starting the season with four straight victories – including the incredible 7-2 thrashing of Liverpool – Dean Smith’s team had lost three games at home before the defeat to West Ham. Jack Grealish still seems to be the center of everything positive. But he is missing Ross Barkley, who may not be back for this one either.

Newcastle had experienced back-to-back 2-0 defeats before its game at Palace on Friday, so it was in need of a good performance. But Steve Bruce’s side looked largely ineffectual for the majority of the game and benefitted greatly from Wilfried Zaha’s absence in the home side’s eleven.

But two goals in the last two minutes completely changed the look of the game and gave Newcastle three much-needed points. Another win on Friday could see the club catapult up the league into the top six. But even if this fixture goes ahead, it will be Aston Villa that will be fancied to come out on top.

Even if Newcastle wasn’t struggling with injuries and illness, I would still be backing Villa to win this one on Friday. Newcastle was lucky to get anything from the game against Palace with the way it played and will be nowhere near full strength. Villa is not the top six team it looked like it possibly could be earlier in the season – but it should pick up three more points here.