Bradford v Aston Villa: Ladbrokes top price on Premier League club

Bradford may be able to count Wigan and Arsenal among their Premier League victims en route to the Capital One Cup semi finals, but good things are unlikely to come in threes this time as they prepare to host Aston Villa.

Technically, this game should be easier for Bradford than those previously, considering that Villa have scored less Premier League goals than Wigan and Arsenal and conceded more.

However, the 4/5 on a Villa victory at Valley Parade, which is the top industry price with Ladbrokes, is too big to pass up taking everything into consideration.

The obvious point is that although Bradford are a fairly large League Two club based on infrastructure and support, there are three divisions and 59 league places separating them from Villa.

Everton showed how big this gulf can be with their 5-1 FA Cup demolition at Cheltenham and although Villa are unlikely to provide a repeat of this scoreline, the extra quality in their squad should tell.

The one thing that Villa also have is plenty of pace in their squad and there is every chance that Paul Lambert will select three or four attack-minded players who like to run with the ball at speed.

Christian Benteke will be the focal point of the attacks with his strength and then the likes of Gabby Agbonlahor, Charles N’Zogbia and Andreas Weimann will be buzzing around him, stretching the home defence.

Arsenal came unstuck by largely slowing down the pace, keeping the ball and allowing Bradford to get numerous bodies into defensive positions, which is hard for almost any team to breach.

Villa will be more direct and this is likely to present Bradford with a more challenging problem.

If Bradford are still in the tie heading to the second leg of their first cup semi final for 102 years, this will be an acceptable accomplishment and there is every chance that they will line up with the hope of not conceding.

This, and the fact that Bradford have failed to score more than one in half of the their League Two home games this season, means that the value call may be Villa to win to nil at 9/4.

Punters favouring another shock can get 7/2 on a Bradford success and 5/2 for the draw in the first leg.

If the game does end as a draw, all losing first goalscorer bets for the game will be refunded as a free bet.

All odds and markets accurate as of publication’s time and date