Aston Villa vs Man United Prediction and Betting Tips: Back Ollie Watkins & Rasmus Hojlund to score

The weekend's Premier League action closes out with a top-six battle between Aston Villa and Manchester United at 4:30pm on Sunday.

Tom Winch is our man for the day's big game. Read on to discover his betting thoughts for this tasty clash...

Manchester United visit Villa Park on Sunday afternoon in what should be an entertaining affair between two sides who are fighting for European football: Villa are currently 4th whilst United are 6th.

Only Liverpool and Arsenal have collected more points at home than Unai Emery’s men this term, the latter have played an extra game. Newcastle ended Villa’s fabulous unbeaten Premier League run at the end of January, a result very few expected. It’s back-to-back defeats here for the hosts after Chelsea cruised to a 3-1 victory during the week in the EFL Cup.

It’s so far so good for Erik ten Hag and his side in 2024, they’re yet to taste defeat and have been scoring plenty of goals. Lisandro Martinez will be absent for the Red Devils due to suffering an injury in their win against West Ham, with the Argentinian a huge miss.

I expect this clash to have goals, we know just how impressive Villa have been here in recent months, and they’ll be expected to come out firing after two dismal displays in recent outings here. United have found their goalscoring form, scoring nine times in their three Premier League matches in 2024.

A whopping 3.73 goals have been scored at this venue per 90 this term. Villa have scored in each of their 11 matches here with multiple strikes arriving on seven separate occasions, while each of Man United’s recent five topflight clashes have seen at least three goals.

There’s plenty of attacking talent on either side too. Ollie Watkins has 21 goal contributions this term, and Leon Bailey and Moussa Diaby provide plenty of pace and trickery. United’s attacking four have been impressive as of late and they’ll certainly fancy themselves against a side that will give you time and space on the counter.

Ollie Watkins is Villa’s biggest threat. The Englishman has scored 11 times this season; only four players have found the back of the net on a greater number of occasions. The 28-year-old is averaging 3.02 shots per 90 with 1.24 hitting the target. It’ll be a shock if United keep Villa out here, they’ve conceded a whopping 54 shots in their three games this calendar year.

It’s been some start to the year for Rasmus Hojlund. The Dane has bagged in all four of his previous starts and each of his last four Premier League matches which includes the win over Villa on Boxing Day. His confidence levels will be sky-high and looks like a good bet to score once again on Sunday.

Goals are expected and the price of the leading striker for either side to score comes out an appealing price. The reverse fixture ended 3-2 after an emphatic comeback from United. A similar scoreline is well on the cards, making the boosted 11/1 from 15/2 punt bigger than what it should perhaps be.