Fulham’s solid home form enough to send Aston Villa home point-less
Published:Aston Villa fans are still waiting for their fortunes to turn under Paul Lambert’s guidance, having won just once in the Premier League to date.
With Fulham looking as solid as ever at home, it’s difficult to envisage them picking up their second three points of the campaign at Craven Cottage, which the price of 7/2 for an away win suggests.
They’ve picked up just one win in eight trips to this corner of west London and the return to fitness of Balkan strikers Mladen Petric and Dimitar Berbatov will be an unwelcome sight for the Villans.
The pair have netted five goals in a combined seven appearances and, unsurprisingly, they head the first goalscorer betting. Bulgarian Berbatov can be backed at 9/2 to break the deadlock, while Croatian international Petric is an 11/2 shot to beat him to it.
Christian Benteke’s two goals in as many games for Belgium will provide Villa’s Scottish manager with some much needed encouragement, with the Birmingham club needing wins quickly to quell any relegation talk.
The former Club Brugge man is a bigger price than Darren Bent to score both first and at any time, despite Lambert’s preference to start him in a 4-3-3 set up. This, therefore, makes his 5/2 to net at any time excellent value.
Another strong bet is the 11/10 available for one or neither team to score in the game. Just one goal was managed by either side in two meetings last term, which would have been the fifth time in eight renewals that this bet would have come in.
Fulham’s consistency and Villa’s issues in the final third point to a low-scoring affair at the Cottage; back 1-0 to the hosts at 13/2.
All Odds and Markets are correct as of the date of publishing.
