Preston North End will receive promotional candidate Aston Villa on Saturday afternoon. At Deepdale, Preston will follow two losses in a row by a good result against Villa. That club, however, will not just be beaten, especially now that the playoffs are on the horizon.
Preston North End:
At Preston Preston North End did not manage to win from Hull City. With two goals from Hull midfielder Jackson Irvine and a goal from Alan Browne, the open game ended in a 1-2 loss for The Lilywhites. Browne scored almost immediately after the break with a great shot, but his equalizer was not enough for a result in Preston. The midfielder, due to the large shortage of attackers at Preston, was often found next to ‘real’ striker Lukas Nmecha. Due to the many injuries, including Louis Moult and Callum Robinson, the 20-year-old Englishman now gets the chance as Preston’s number 9. The young Nmecha did not impress, however, against Hull City.
Because of the loss, Preston North End slumped to the seventeenth position of the Championship. The gap between Preston and the playoff positions is many times greater than the difference with the relegation zone. The Alex Neil team is only seven points away from the imaginary line.
Besides the loss of point, Neil also had to deal with a setback in the duel with Hull City. Once again, one of his players fell out with an injury. One of the few certainties in the defense of The Lilywhites, Ben Davies, had to stop in the first half in connection with a hamstring injury. Meanwhile, the infirmary begins to bulge, because Josh Earl, Brandon Barker, Sean Maguire and Louis Moult are not ready for the game with Aston Villa either. Callum Robinson, Billy Bodin and Josh Harrop are in the coming months still out of circulation with long-term injuries. The rinse is incredibly thin and so we can expect several youth players at Preston North End on Saturday afternoon.
Aston Villa:
Barely a week ago, Aston Villa won a visit to Swansea City. A goal by man in form Conor Hourihane after an hour of play seemed enough for the win, until Anwar El Ghazi in a gang of gangs entered a duel in their own penalty area. The former Ajax player overturned a Swansea player, causing a penalty in the injury time. However, Øjran Nyland played well throughout the game, but he turned out to be a match winner by reversing Wilfried Bony’s well-shot penalty. Aston Villa won as yet and has thus excellently recovered from the defeat against league-leader Leeds United (2-3).
Villans coach Dean Smith was lyrical about Nyland after the match: “He has been playing a lot lately. Everyone knows that we have bought another keeper with Lovre Kalinic to raise the level in the goal. Looking at Nyland we can see that that has been achieved ‘. Noteworthy is the fact that Nyland did not have a counterweight for the first time since the beginning of December. In the past three league matches, the Norwegian goalkeeper got at least two goals each time.
PREDICTION: X2 @ 1.40
