The West Midlands derby is hosted at Villa Park today when Aston Villa entertain the high-flying West Brom. The Baggies, under new manager Steve Clarke, have enjoyed a great start to the league and could go as high as second if they win.

Villa have showed signs of improvement of late and but handed Southampton their first win of the season last week, despite Darren Bent giving the Claret and Blues the lead.

Match Odds

Aston Villa 31/20
Draw 23/10
West Brom 2/1

Paul Lambert’s team have an awful home record with just three triumphs in their last 17 matches. They do, however, enjoy superiority in the head-to-head statistic with the Baggies, winning 74 to their opponents 52.

Two of those West Brom victories have come in the last three meetings, including a 2-1 win in this fixture last season and 2/1 looks a good price for Clarke’s team.

West Brom’s defence is key to their success and they have kept six clean sheets in their previous ten games.

But while three home victories has Clarke’s side at the top end of the table results on the road have been less than encouraging. A late equaliser was required to salvage a draw at Spurs while a 3-0 capitulation marked a bad day out at Fulham.

With neither side promising a win the draw gets the vote at a fair price of 23/10, as does Bent to open the scoring at 5s. The England striker notched his first goal of the season against Southampton last week and that could be a case of the floodgates opening for him.

 

Tipster’s Best Bets

Draw @ 23/10 with BetVictor
Darren Bent to score first @ 5/1 with Ladbrokes

Claim Your Free £30 Bonus Now Claim Your Free £25 Bonus Now