Southampton vs Aston Villa - Preview, prediction, team news and lineups

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·11 avril 2025

Southampton vs Aston Villa - Preview, prediction, team news and lineups

Aston Villa have won their last four meetings with Southampton, all without conceding, seeking five successive victories over the Saints for the first time ever.

Southampton vs Aston Villa Preview

Safe to say, Aston Villa supporters are enjoying this season rather more than their counterparts from the South Coast ahead of this clash. Last Sunday, Southampton's 3-1 defeat at Tottenham mathematically rubber stamped their relegation, guaranteed to go down with a record-breaking seven games to go.

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Ivan Jurić, who yielded just four points from his 14 matches in charge, was thereby sacked on Monday morning, meaning Simon Rusk will be in interim charge for the rest of the season. So, the Saints' sole aim from their remaining seven fixtures is to avoid becoming the worst Premier League team ever, requiring just two points to achieve this. Although, Southampton have won only one of their last 22 top-flight fixtures at St Mary's, so those in attendance shouldn't hold out too much hope.

However, could this be the perfect time to play Aston Villa? On Wednesday night, the Villans were in Champions League quarter-final action, taking on Paris Saint-Germain in the French capital. Against the run of play, the visitors took a shock lead at the Parc des Princes; Morgan Rogers finishing off a free-flowing team move. Nevertheless, PSG, who were excellent on the evening, equalised soon after, running out 3-1 winners, les Rouge-et-Bleu's third goal, coming right at the end, a serious sucker-punch. Thus, the Claret and Blue Army are down but not out, ahead of Tuesday's return leg.

Overall, Unai Emery's team are fighting on three fronts; they have an FA Cup semi-final to come, while also in need of Premier League points. Villa, crucially, beat Nottingham Forest 2-1 last weekend, their third league win on the spin, thereby climbing up to seventh. With games against Newcastle and then Man City up next, if they harbour any hopes of gatecrashing the top five, this is surely must win.

Southampton vs Aston Villa Head-to-Head Record

Matches Played: 84.

Southampton Wins: 29. Draws: 23. Aston Villa Wins: 33.

Southampton Team News

Flynn Downes is serving the second of his two-match suspension, while Charlie Taylor, Juan Larios, Albert Grønbæk and Ryan Fraser are all injured, On the flip side, Ross Stewart came off the bench at Spurs, his first appearance since 5 October due to injury.

Speaking of strikers, Cameron Archer got the nod last weekend, but in-form Paul Onuachu is likely to lead the attack this time. Ivan Jurić, predominantly, deployed a rather defensive 5-4-1 during his ill-fated tenure, so it'll be intersting to see what Simon Rusk does; during his only previous match in interim charge, at Fulham in December, Rusk did indeed go with a back five.

Southampton predicted lineup vs Aston Villa: (5-2-2-1): Ramsdale; Walker-Peters, Stephens, Harwood-Bellis, Bednarek, Welington; Ugochukwu, Fernandes, Dibling, Sulemana; Onuachu.

Southampton Player to Watch vs Aston Villa

As already alluded to, Paul Onuachu has four Premier League goals to his name this season, on target during both of his last two starts, so will the 6 ft 7 in centre-forward be the danger man again?

Aston Villa Team News

Unai Emery made eight changes in Paris, having heavily rotated against Forest last Saturday, making the victory even more impressive, thereby likely to largely revert to that team here. Youri Tielemans and Morgan Rogers are the only outfielders to start both, so could either be rotated out this time?

Andrés García and Donyell Malen are guaranteed starters, considering neither are in the UEFA squad, with Tyrone Mings, Axel Disasi, Ian Maatsen, Amadou Onana and Ollie Watkins all returning too. Lastly, Ross Barkley was back on the bench on Wednesday, now hoping to feature for the first time since 10 January due to a calf injury.

Aston Villa Player to Watch vs Southampton

Ollie Watkins appears to have lost his place in the first-choice starting lineup to Marcus Rashford, so can he stake a claim here by adding to his 14 goals this season, having netted three times against Southampton to date.

Southampton vs Aston Villa Prediction

We are backing Aston Villa for a very comfortable victory. Even though Unai Emery will heavily rotate, his team should be far too strong for a generally hopeless Saints side: Southampton 1-3 Aston Villa.