Aston Villa vs Wigan Predictions, Betting Tips and Match Previews

After a tumultuous summer, Aston Villa showed no signs of turmoil as they saw off Hull away from home in their first game of the season.

The team played well against a spirited Hull side, and capitalised on sloppy defending to score three goals, two put away by defenders themselves. Right-back Alan Hutton got the pick of the bunch for his first goal since September 2014, whilst centre-back Tommy Elphick got the team’s first goal of the season. Winger Ahmed Elmohamady got the other goal to cap a satisfying night which will give manager Steve Bruce confidence for the season ahead, even though the score-line flattered them somewhat.

Indeed, the result came after a summer in which the club recovered from losing the play-off final and avoided financial ruin through investment by billionaires Nassef Sawiris and Wes Edens. It has allowed the team to finally sign some players. Goalkeepers Orjan Nyland and Andre Moreira have arrived to replace Sam Johnstone and are arguably needed, after the goalkeeper, Jed Steer, was partially at fault for the Hull goal and was usually the back-up goalkeeper. In addition, Abel Tuanzebe has arrived on loan from Manchester United after he completed a similar spell last season, and will add steel to the defence.

Furthermore, the club looks set to be busy in the transfer window before the deadline. The club have missed out on Bristol City full-back Joe Bryan, but have landed Hibernian midfielder John McGinn. Both are talented players, however, attention will mostly be focused on Jack Grealish staying at Villa and hopefully he will provide the creativity needed to push Aston Villa towards the play-off places.

In contrast, after a fantastic, league-winning season in League One, Wigan seem stable and got their season off to a fine start, beating Sheffield Wednesday 3-2 at home.

What will please Paul Cook most about that win is the resolve Wigan showed throughout the match. They kept their composure and took the lead almost immediately after Wednesday had equalised to make it 1-1, whilst held out for the last 30 minutes after their opponents had brought it back to a 3-2 score-line.

In addition, Cook will also be happy with the performances his new signings gave. The four debutants gelled well with the team, particularly Everton-loanee Antonee Robinson, who provided an assist for the first Wigan goal, scored by Michael Jacobs who got two in the game and will give encouragement that players like him can make the step-up to the Championship effectively.

If Wigan can make the DW Stadium as much of a fortress as they did in League One and perform as well as they did on Saturday, then it might not be out of the question to see the club sneak into the top-half come the end of the season.

However, they face a much tougher opponent on Saturday against Aston Villa, a side that lost only three games at home in 25 league matches and will be buoyed from the great result they got in their first match. Indeed, we think the game will go Villa’s way, however, it will be a tough match, as Wigan have shown they can prosper at this level, whilst if Villa lose Jack Grealish, other players will have to raise their games. In addition, BTTS scored in over half of Villa’s games last season, whilst Wigan had an impressive away record in League One last season, losing only four times.

Thus, a Villa to Win & BTTS, with a 2-1 correct score-line shows the potential tight nature of the match but also the extra bit of quality Villa possess to get the win.