Fulham meets Aston Villa on Craven Cottage in the first round of Premier League 2011/2012, on August 13th at 15:00 UK time
Fulham
Fulham finished last season on the 8th spot, which shows that they’ve had a pretty good season. On top of that the team earned qualification for Europa League through the Fair Play league, where they team came up ahead of Blackpool with just 0.01 points. Despite the fact that Chelsea, Tottenham and Manchester United were the top 3 teams in the league, they had all qualified already for Europe, so Fulham got the spot. Without any problems (winning 4 drawing 2 of the 6 games) Fulham reached the Play-off stage, after eliminating 3 opponents, and will now face the Ukrainian Dnipro. Fulham has been playing with a new manager since June 7th 2011, after the departure of Mark Hughes, Maarten Cornelis Jol has been signed with a 2 year contract. Seems like the team is ready for the start of the season.
Aston Villa
Aston Villa finished last season on the 9th place, with a last round victory over Liverpool with 1:0. Without that victory, the team wasn’t going to be in the Top 10 teams. Aston Villa will also start the season with a new manager, Alex McLeish, the former Birmingham manager. With his arrival, Shay Given has been bought from Manchester City for £3.5m on July 18th 2011. Eleven days later, Charles N’Zogbia was bought from Wigan for £9.5m. Aston Villa made close to £37m by selling Ashley Young to Manchester United for £17m and Stewart Downing to Liverpool for £20m. Nigel Reo-Coker, John Carew and Brad Friedel all left the club as free transfers. After the Asia Trophy, Villa was able to play 2 friendly games losing the first one to Derby and drawing the second against Braga.
Prediction
Both teams have met here on Craven Cottage 10 times since 2002. All of the games have been for the Premier League:
06/11/2010 Premier League Fulham vs. Aston Villa 1:1
30/01/2010 Premier League Fulham vs. Aston Villa 0:2
09/05/2009 Premier League Fulham vs. Aston Villa 3:1
03/02/2008 Premier League Fulham vs. Aston Villa 2:1
03/03/2007 Premier League Fulham vs. Aston Villa 1:1
28/12/2005 Premier League Fulham vs. Aston Villa 3:3
02/02/2005 Premier League Fulham vs. Aston Villa 1:1
11/02/2004 Premier League Fulham vs. Aston Villa 1:2
08/02/2003 Premier League Fulham vs. Aston Villa 2:1
02/02/2002 Premier League Fulham vs. Aston Villa 0:0
Five draws, 3 victories for Fulham and 2 for Aston Villa is what the statistics shows. Both teams are starting the season with new managers, Aston Villa with 2 new transfers, the goalkeeper Shay Given, who did a really nice job in Manchester City, but could not play since Joe Hart took the starter position, and Charles N’Zogbia as a midfielder. Add to that the very successful transfer from Sunderland, Darren Bent and there you have a bit of an edge for Aston Villa.
However, the favorite in this game according to the sportsbooks is Fulham, odds @ 2.20 for a victory, 3.20 for a draw and 3.50 for Villa (bet365).
The value bet for this match seems like the draw @ 3.20. Why? 50% draw rate between Fulham and Villa in 9 years. Let’s not forget that Fulham was the team with the most draw games last season(16), and drew the first 3 rounds of season 2010-11.
Therefore, my prediction for this match would be A Draw.
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Recommended Bet:
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Draw @ 3.20 | Visit Bet365 Now |
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