Aston Villa are looking to return to winning ways this afternoon as Unai Emery's side host early Premier League strugglers Crystal Palace at Villa Park.
Villa's last win in all competitions came against Bologna a month ago after they lost four matches in a row before the November international break. Following a 1-1 draw with Bournemouth at the end of last month, Villa were defeated by today's opponents Palace in the Carabao Cup before Tottenham beat them 4-1 in the league.
A 2-0 defeat at Liverpool came after a bizarre loss at Club Brugge after Tyrone Mings picked the ball up in the penalty box unaware that it was in play before Hans Vanaken scored the resulting spot-kick. Despite sitting in ninth place before facing Palace, Villa are only one point off third place.
Villa’s only defeat in 12 Premier League home matches against Palace came on Boxing Day in 2013. They have kept six clean sheets and never conceded more than once in any of those meetings.
The Eagles can remain winless after six Premier League away games of a season for the second time. It took them nine attempts to earn a first away victory in 2017-18.
Palace’s tally of seven points from 11 matches is their third lowest at this stage of a Premier League season, while Oliver Glasner’s side have led for just 104 minutes in the league this season; only West Ham United have fared worse.
Stay tuned for build-up, team news, live updates and post-match coverage from our Villa correspondent John Townley.
Key Events
Unai Emery's reaction
Are you missing leadership at the back?
"We are conceding more goals than normal. We have to try and find a solution."
Toughest spell since you joined?
"It depends. Two years ago when we arrived, we lost two matches in a row against Arsenal 4-2 and Leicester 4-2. Now more or less we have the same sort of momentum."
Player ratings
Here are the Aston Villa player ratings after drawing 2-2 with Crystal Palace.
GOAL: Villa 2-2 Palace
Ross Barkley equalises for Villa with 15 minutes left to play. He heads in from Youri Tielemans' corner.
Villa penalty claim
72 - Watkins wants a penalty but isn't going to get one. He was played in by Rogers, but Lacroix gets his body in front and barges him out the way. Strong defending. No penalty.
Palace time-wasting
63 - Henderson was done for a few minutes then, just taking the sting out of the game. Villa really need to build momentum now.
Bright start to the second half
50 - McGinn and Watkins have both had chances to equalise for Villa.
51 - Palace manage to deal with successive corners from Villa.
Second half starts
We're back underway at Villa Park.
Matty Cash is coming on for Lamare Bogarde.
Second half fightback please...
HT: Villa 1-2 Palace
Villa are behind at the break when they really should have taken the lead late on in the first half. Youri Tielemans missed a penalty before Justin Devenny scored at the Holte End moments later.
GOAL: Villa 1-2 Palace
Crystal Palace restore the lead just after Youri Tielemans' missed penalty. Typical.
Villa penalty
43 - Villa have been awareded a penalty after a VAR review. Hughes stamped on Bailey's Achilles.
Bailey hits the bar
39 - Bailey strikes the bar after drilling the ball at goal with his right foot. Rogers picked him out on the counter. So close to turning the game around in the space of minutes.
GOAL: Villa 1-1 Palace
Ollie Watkins equalises for Aston Villa after being through by John McGinn.
Watkins chance
28 - Bailey pings a lovely pass into Watkins' stride. The striker cuts inside from the right and fires at the near post, but Henderson makes a strong save. Closest Villa have come to scoring so far.
Villa free-kick
23 - Rogers collects the ball from a short free-kick and wins a foul after Hughes tackled him from behind. No booking for the Palace midfielder.
24 - Tielemans eventually puts the ball the ball into the box after an exchange of passes. Palace clear away for a corner.
25 - The ball isn't turned in from close range and Palace scramble it to safety.
Villa corner
12 - Lacroix fails to the clear the ball - it goes out for a corner.
12 - McGinn whips the ball into the box after Tielemans went short. Watkins' header goes over the bar.
Rogers chance
9 - Barkley plays the ball out wide to Bailey, who then finds Rogers inside the box. The forward's effort spins wide.
9 - Villa have responded well to falling behind, but Palace have a lead to protect.
11 - Bailey gives the ball away again. Mix up in communication between him and right-back Bogarde.
GOAL: Villa 0-1 Palace
Ismaïla Sarr breaks the deadlock after running in on goal and beating Emi Martinez.
Kick-off
We’re underway at Villa Park.
Villa are facing the North Stand in the first period and will kick towards the Holte End in the second half.
I’ll bring you updates every few minutes…
Final thoughts
This is a big opportunity for Aston Villa to return to winning way this afternoon. Crystal Palace have been poor all season and are missing some key players today.
A victory for Villa will lift them up the table and put them a point behind Chelsea going into next weekend’s clash at Stamford Bridge if they get the result they want.
Ian Maatsen makes his first league start for Villa, while there’s also a place for Lamare Bogarde in the XI as Matty Cash starts from the bench.
Sutton's prediction
"Aston Villa have lost four in a row in all competitions but Crystal Palace have even more cause for concern," Sutton said in his BBC predictions.
"Logic tells me that Villa will come good, because Unai Emery is a superb organiser of teams and we have already seen long spells of them at their best.
"Palace, however, need a drastic improvement on their performances this season because they have been pretty flat so far.
"Villa need to click again, but they are at home which will help. Palace's form is getting pretty desperate under Oliver Glasner, and I don't see that changing this week."
Sutton's prediction: 2-1
Emery: Rogers' next step
"He is here with us 10 months ago, joining us in January and his progression has been fantastic, his process is increasing, helping us getting a new level," Emery said of the forward. "He can get it. Even there is still work to do to increase more. The national team call for him is fantastic.
"He is feeling good in training sessions and playing matches. We are pushing him and trying to work more getting more of him because I think he can add us more goals, more assists.
"He is always playing doing fantastic work, but I think he can help us be more clinical in the attacking third. This is my concern with him every day.
"The extension of the contract, he deserved it. The club wants to keep the better players and younger players to increase and grow up with us, getting the level we want. One of them is obviously Morgan Rogers."
Villa's imminent fixture pile-up
Now the final international break of the year is over, Villa are about to attack the busiest and most demanding period of the campaign.
The festive fixtures loom, but not before Villa play two more Champions League matches and look to get back into form in the league. After being knocked out of the Carabao Cup by Crystal Palace last month, Villa's next domestic cup match will be played in January in the FA Cup.
Before then, Unai Emery's side will play a total of 11 matches, seven of which are at home. Apart from travelling to Germany to face RB Leipzig in the Champions League, their longest journey comes on Boxing Day when they head to Newcastle United.
Importance of Villa Park response
“We have 38 matches in the Premier League," Emery said in his press conference. "Sometimes we can have good results, sometimes not, but we have to accept it.
“When we were finishing before the break with good results, we were happy. The latest one we finished with some bade results and we weren’t happy. Sometimes we have to manage our frustrations and keep balance in how we are in our process.
“This is the reason we try to keep calm, try to rest the players after their matches with the national team. We are focusing on the match tomorrow because it’s a very, very important three points.
“We are more or less on the same points we were expecting. We are in the right way, even losing. It’s very important how we respond at Villa Park.”
Glasner remaining positive
“In many parts of the game, we are improving since the beginning of the season,” the Palace boss said in his pre-match press conference.
“I think there were several things that happened in summer that led especially to our start: when you have 12 players without pre-season; four arriving two weeks after the start of the Premier League; having seven players, with a maximum of 10 days of pre-season; losing 10 players of your dressing room; bringing in seven… then, you have problems at the beginning of the season. Then we saw it goes into the right direction… and it's not an excuse, but then all of a sudden, we were suffering many injuries.
“But the one that [thing I’ve] always mentioned is that the character of this group is amazing. Really, the character of this club is amazing."
Watkins and Duran dynamic discussed
"We have to get the best performances collectively through individual performances, but each player has to understand the process we have and Watkins is very important for us," Emery explained when asked how Watkins is coping with competition from Duran. "Some circumstances can change because usually we are building the team with two players for each position to be competitive and to be able to play performing in the demands we have.
"Maybe, the process we had last year or two years ago with Watkins and with Jhon Duran was a little bit different. But they proved that they are very important and they have increased our level. I want players being able to play performing in the demands we have.
"Of course, it is changing something in our individual moment they can have, playing more or less. They have to accept it. I want to have two players competing for one position and performing in the high level. I think it is positive. With Watkins, [I have] no doubts. He has to accept that he has to adapt quickly to his new position being the same player like was last year for us and for the team. He must play always focusing on his quality and his capacity.
"The confidence is overall. It is not individual. I don’t want only one player feeling confident, getting minutes and scoring goals. I want every player in the same form, in the same mentality, helping the team, being ready to play."
