It’s hardly been a settled season for Aston Villa. After flirting with relegation for years they finally suffered the drop last season and shortly after that the club was eventually sold after being up for sale for an extended period of time. The new owner tried to move forwards with Roberto Di Matteo in place as their new manager but a poor start to the season saw him swiftly lose his job and Steve Bruce has since stepped up to take on a big rebuilding job.
Results have stabilized and Aston Villa fans are a much happier group now. The poor start to the season has held them back in the league and even after going on a long unbeaten run (recently finished) Aston Villa are still only in 12th place in the league and 7 points off the play-off spots.
Realistically they will be targeting those play-off spots as their best chance of getting back to the Premier League. The automatic promotion places are too far away but Villa are not short of money and with some careful additions to the squad in January they will be looking to push on and be a force in the second half of the season.
With all that going on you could forgive them if they didn’t see the FA Cup as a priority this season.
When they were drawn against Tottenham in the third round of the FA Cup plenty of Aston Villa fans were expecting a quick exit from the competition and after their performance against Cardiff City at the weekend that opinion hasn’t changed.
They’re likely to get a chance, though, perhaps a bigger chance than they expect as Tottenham manager Mauricio Pochettino has continually neglected the FA Cup and League Cup during his time in England. You can expect to see his side rotated with players like Michel Vorm, Kieran Trippier, Vincent Janssen and Harry Winks likely to get a start. All of those are competent players (in some cases very highly rated) but none are regulars and their minutes on the pitch have been limited this season. Switching players out always give the opposition a chance and unless Pochettino has a change of heart and takes this competition seriously then Spurs will only ever be regarded as “also-rans” in competitions like this.
At average odds of 1.28 in plenty of our Green Listed Book Makers, I think Tottenham are seriously overrated for this one. That opens up some options for us in regards to value betting and I think the draw is something a lot of people will be looking at. Personally, I’m looking at the Asian Handicap markets and am prepared to give Aston Villa headstart of a goal and a half in this one. At 2.04 with Pinnacle for Aston Villa +1.5 I think there’s value there and although I won’t be going big on this one I will be risking a little of my money on it. Other notable options to check out for this match are Bet365, Ladbrokes and Will Hill.
Tottenham has their eyes fixed on another high league finish and participation in the Champions League again next season so although the fans want a strong cup run, I think the clubs hierarchy would forgo FA Cup success in exchange for another Champions League payday.
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