Aston Villa face Burnley for the second time in 12 days when the Premier League pair reconvene at Villa Park on Thursday evening.
Steven Gerrard’s upcoming hosts earned a 3-1 victory over Burnley when the sides met at Turf Moor less than a fortnight prior. The relegation-zone-dwelling Clarets created a sizeable slice of chances but failed to convert as Villa clinically and crisply rattled in a trio of strikes inside an hour.
Here’s everything you need to know about the rematch.
When is kick off? Thursday 19 May, 20:00 (BST)
Where is the match being played? Villa Park
TV channel/live stream? Sky Sports (UK), Peacock (USA), DAZN (Canada)
Highlights? Sky Sports Football YouTube
Referee? Paul Tierney
VAR? John Brooks
Ezri Konsa suffered a nasty knee injury after a collision in Villa’s 1-1 draw against Crystal Palace on Sunday and will not feature again this season.
Jacob Ramsey returned from a groin injury to appear off the bench on the weekend but Leon Bailey’s availability remains doubtful. Kortney Hause travelled to Canada earlier in the year for treatment of an abdominal injury which he is yet to recover from.
Gerrard is ‘hoping’ Emiliano Martinez pulls through a small issue to start between the sticks.
For just the third time in the last six years, Burnley started a Premier League match without either Ben Mee or James Tarkowski against Tottenham last weekend.
The rejigged defensive unit managed to limit Spurs to just one Harry Kane penalty and may well be called upon again in midweek as both senior centre-backs are still doubtful.
Dale Stephens and Erik Pieters were left out of the squad as a precaution according to interim manager Mike Jackson but Jay Rodriguez’s fitness remains uncertain as he nurses a hamstring concern.
Ashley Westwood, Matej Vydra and Johann Berg Gudmundsson aren’t expected to play any further part in the relegation scrap.
While the final result was perhaps more flattering than the performance suggests, Villa are favourites to replicate their victory of less than a fortnight ago.
If Burnley stick with the back-five they deployed against Spurs, they won’t be so regularly overwhelmed by Villa’s pair of out and out strikers again. However, the simple abundance of defenders doesn’t necessarily compensate for the loss of two key figures in that area of the pitch.
Prediction: Aston Villa 2-1 Burnley
