Aston Villa vs Barnsley Predictions, Betting Tips and Match Previews

Villa come into this game 10 points below Barnsley, which would have been almost unthinkable at the start of the campaign. Despite a host of new arrivals, two of which joined from the Tykes, they are still struggling badly for goals and this has the makings of a low scoring contest.

If some more optimistic Villa fans were still eyeing up a late charge for the play-offs, even they must have been starting to think towards next season after Saturday’s 1-0 home defeat against Ipswich. On paper the side is packed full of players who should offer genuine quality at this level but it’s not just happening for Steve Bruce’s men right now, particularly in front of goal.

Villa have failed to score in 5 of their last 7 matches and average just 0.97 goals per game in the league this term. Only the bottom two clubs have scored fewer goals and even they are only 1 goal behind Villa’s return of 29. The only man who has been anything like a consistent goal threat is Jonathan Kodjia. He has netted 34% of his team’s league goals, despite only featuring in 22 of their 30 games due to AFCON duty and having been at Bristol City for the opening few weeks of the season.  He looks the most likely man on either side to net here and you can back Kodjia to score anytime at 6/5.

Barnsley have a much more impressive goal record but they did lose two of their best attacking threats in January. Since then Paul Heckingbottom has perhaps wisely opted for a more cautious approach and it has worked out pretty well. Certainly they’ve been much tougher to break down and come into this game having kept clean sheets in 3 of their last 4 games. They’ve only scored 2 goals in 4 games since selling chief play-maker Conor Hourihane to Villa though and come into this match following back-to-back 0-0 draws.

They are likely to adopt a cautious approach again here and given 67% of Villa games this term have produced under 2.5 goals, a low scoring affair looks likely. Therefore, backing Under 2.5 goals at 3/4 looks to offer value.