PREVIEW: Aston Villa Search for first Molineux win in five years against Wolves in the Premier League | OneFootball

Premier League title-race outsiders Aston Villa travel to Molineux for a local derby with Wolverhampton Wanderers.

Villa haven’t won at Wolves since December 2020, when they picked up a 1-0 victory thanks to a late Anwar El-Ghazi winner in front of an empty stadium due to COVID-19 restrictions.

This likely represents the best opportunity Villa have had since then, however, with Wolves currently 17 points adrift in the relegation zone and rock bottom of the table, having amassed just ten points so far this term.

Meanwhile, Unai Emery’s side have high hopes this season, as they find themselves third in the division and ten points behind league leaders Arsenal.

Despite a realistic title challenge remaining unlikely, Villa will be looking to confirm a Champions League spot for the second time since their return to the Premier League come the end of this season.

At the moment, they sit six points inside the top four and remain in the Europa Conference League, which remains their most likely chance at silverware this season.

Time is starting to run out for The Wanderers this season, with only 30 points left for them to win. They will likely need to pick up all of them if they are to stay up this season, but with only one win this term, it’s safe to say that’s quite unlikely, and we could see them officially relegated before mid-April.

These two sides have already met this season, at Villa Park, where Boubacar Kamara netted a second-half winner for the hosts back in November.

Emery touched on this in his pre-match press conference, “(It will be) very difficult. We can remember the match we played here at home, against them. With Rob Edwards, the coach, it was his second or third match coaching Wolverhampton, and we won; we didn’t deserve to win.

“They performed fantastic and they played a fantastic game, I remember it, because they lost some matches, the same against us, they didn’t deserve.”

The Spaniard also spoke on Wolves’ recent home form, which has yielded them six of their ten points so far this campaign. “Everything we analyse about them does not make it an easy match, feels not an easy match and feels like a derby as well, for them and for us, it’s a derby, because we have been both here in the Premier League for a long time, and close here, and we can feel it as a derby.

“They are playing at home with their supporters, and they will feel the necessary motivation for them to show their capacity against us.”

In recent years, this fixture has been fairly even, with Villa frequently winning at home and Wolves frequently winning at Molineux.

Villa’s last win in front of fans in Wolverhampton came back in 2012, when Robbie Keane bagged a brace to secure a stunning 3-2 comeback win for The Villans. Since then, Wolves have won six of the nine meetings between the two at their home ground.

Wolves manager Rob Edwards also had high praise for Friday night’s opponents, “Villa are obviously a brilliant team and an amazing manager. They have a clear way of playing; we sort of know the big elements we need to do to make sure we are competitive in the game. It needs to look like it matters to us. Villa are a team which can win a game in many different ways.”

The game will take place on Friday, February 27th, and kick-off is scheduled for 8pm (UK time)