Aston Villa Vs Crystal Palace Prediction: Emery Needs Answer, Glasner Aims For Consistency

JAKARTA - The meeting between Aston Villa and Crystal Palace on Sunday night, August 31 at Villa Park will be an event for both teams to seek their first Premier League win this season.

Until the second week, The Lions and The Eagles had only collected three points in total, even though Oliver Glasner's squad had tasted victory at the European level.

Aston Villa are still without a win and without a goal in the opening two Premier League games. The 0-0 draw against Newcastle United was arguably quite positive, but Brentford's 0-1 loss last week extended their poor start.

Facing Brentford who lost several important pillars such as Bryan Mbeumo, Christian Norgaard, to Mark Fleken, Unai Emery's troops were unable to respond to Dango Outattara's quick goal in the 12th minute.

The series of results made Villa now fail to win in the last three league games, including the last week of defeat against Manchester United. Even worse, Villa could repeat the negative 1997-98 season record if they failed to score again in the first three Premier League games.

However, Villa still has an impressive record at home. They are unbeaten in the last 19 Premier League games at Villa Park for the longest record in England's highest caste at the moment.

On the other hand, Crystal Palace came in unbeaten status in the last 13 competitive matches, including a win over Liverpool at Community Shield. Even so, the Premier League's first two games ended in a 1-1 draw against Nottingham Forest and 0-0 against Chelsea.

While in the European event, The Eagles managed to get rid of Fredrikstad in the League Conference playoffs 1-0 on aggregate. They are now looking forward to the group stage containing opponents such as AZ Alkmaar and Strasbourg.

Palace's away record is also worth taking into account: they have only lost twice in the Premier League since November 2024, better than almost all the teams except Arsenal. The record included a 2-2 draw at Villa Park last season, before Palace rolled Villa 4-1 at Selhurst Park and knocked them out 3-0 in the FA Cup semifinals.

Last week's defeat to Brentford hurt Aston Villa even more after Boubacar Kamara picked up a thigh injury in the first half. Although Emery still opened up opportunities, the medical report said Kamara was likely to be out for two weeks.

Ross Barkley and Andres Garcia are also still on the injury list, but the good news is that Ezri Konsa is back from a ban on playing and can shift Pau Torres.

In the Palace camp, they have confirmed Yeremy Pino's recruitment from Villarreal to fill the void left by Eberechi Eze. The young Spaniard is ready to make his Premier League debut this weekend.

Chris Richards should have been able to appear even though he had an ankle problem, Will Hughes needed further examination. Meanwhile, Odsonne Edouard, Matheus Franca, Eddie Nketiah, Cheick Doucoure, Caleb Kporha, and Chadi Riad are still absent.

Ismaila Sarr is Villa's main threat. The Senegal winger has always contributed in the last six appearances against The Lions scoring seven goals and three assists.

With Palace having just undergone European matches and having minimal rotation, Aston Villa has the opportunity to take advantage of the opponent's fatigue. Although blunt in the first two matches, Villa's home record could be decisive.

Aston Villa (4-2-3-1):Martinez; Cash, Konsa, Mings, Digne; Onana, Tielemans; Malen, Rogers, McGinn; Watkins

Crystal Palace (3-4-2-1): Henderson; Richards, Lacroix, Guehi; Munoz, Wharton, Lerma, Mitchell; Sarr, Shanny; Mateta

Score prediction: Aston Villa 1-0 Crystal Palace