Aston Villa, West Bromwich Albion Battle For A Premiership Spot

It’s been a big week for English football and particularly for the Premier League. Thanks to an almost unimaginable turn of events the finals of both the Champions League and Europa League are Premiership members. In the Champions League, Tottenham Hotspur and Liverpool will go at it and in the Europa League Arsenal and Chelsea will battle. England becomes the first country ever to fill out the finals in both competitions in the same year. The Champions League final in Madrid on July 1 will have two teams from the same country for the seventh time and the fourth time in the last seven years. It will be the second all-English Champions League final with Manchester United and Chelsea doing battle in 2008. It will be the first all England final in the Europa League (known as the UEFA Cup before 2009) since 1972’s match between Wolverhampton and Tottenham.

There will be plenty of Premier League drama on Sunday as Manchester City and Liverpool both hope to claim the title but on Saturday, the playoffs are on tap in the second level of English football to determine the teams that will be elevated to join the Premier League next season. Three teams are promoted annually from the League Championship to the Premier League. The top two teams in the League Championship receive an automatic promotion meaning that Norwich City and Sheffield United will be back at the top level next season. The final team to be promoted is determined by a playoff between the third, fourth, fifth and sixth ranked teams. This season that is Leeds United, West Brom, Aston Villa and Derby County. The other semifinal between Derby County and Leeds United will also begin on Saturday.

Just four points separated West Brom and Aston Villa during the season and the expectation is for a hard fought series as this semifinal begins at Villa Park. The second leg will take place at The Hawthorns on Tuesday. Aston Villa reached the playoff final last season but fell short in their quest to return to the Premier League. Villa then got off to a poor start this year but a strong late season run has given them new life and a new opportunity to return to the top level of English football. Aston Villa was a very strong home side this season so it is crucial that they take advantage of this first leg if they are to advance. Villa has won 10 of their last 12 games including a franchise best 10 game winning streak. Since that streak ended they fought to a 1-1 draw at Leeds United and lost to Norwich City. That streak also included five straight home wins in Football Championship play that ended with the Norwich City loss.

Throughout the season, West Brom was a very strong side away from home finishing with a record of 11-4-8 in their Football Championship away games. In those games they scored 34 goals and allowed 31. Their recent form has not been as impressive–they have lost 4 of their last 6 away games in league play allowing two or more goals in each of these defeats. West Brom did win both games against Aston Villa in the regular season but they took place before the late season turnaround. West Brom has an added bit of pressure–Darren Moore was fired as manager earlier this year and this decision has been a controversial one. James Shan is the interim manager and his future could be determined by the final disposition of these playoffs. If West Brom are to advance they’ll have to do most of the work on their home field. Aston Villa’s superior recent form and the visitor’s poor traveling form should decide this outcome. We’ll lay the 1/2 goal on the soccer handicap line and look for this one to go ‘Over’.

BET ASTON VILLA -1/2 -106 OVER WEST BROMWICH ALBION
BET ASTON VILLA/WEST BROMWICH ALBION OVER 2.5 +100

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