At A Glance
After their flying start to the season was halted by Leeds United, Aston Villa are looking to get back to winning ways against Southampton.
An unbeaten Premier League run stretching eight games came to an end with a 3-0 loss to Leeds, with a second half hat-trick from Patrick Bamford doing the damage.
Despite their first defeat of the league campaign, Dean Smith’s team are third in the table heading into Sunday’s game at Villa Park.
Opponents Southampton are on a four-match unbeaten run which has propelled them to seventh in the top-flight.
The Saints lost their opening two games but have shown their quality to win three of the next four, ending Everton’s unbeaten start to the season last time out (2-0).
Danny Ings is Southampton’s main goal threat, and the striker has netted four times already in the Premier League.
Standout Stats
Aston Villa’s winning start to the season was ended at home to Leeds last time out (0-3). However, they’ve still picked up more points in their five games this season (12) than they managed in their final 14 games last term (10).
Aston Villa have won three of their last four Premier League games on Sunday (D1) – as many as they’d won in their previous 29 such matches in the competition (W3 D4 L22).
Since the start of last season, Aston Villa captain Jack Grealish has created more goalscoring chances in the Premier League than any other Englishman (106). Indeed, only Kevin De Bruyne (151) has supplied more chances in the competition in this period amongst all players than Grealish.
The Last Meeting
Aston Villa tamely surrendered on the South Coast as they lost 2-0 at St Mary’s back in February.
The visitors mustered only one shot on target as the Saints dominated the match.
Shane Long opened the scoring after eight minutes but it took until injury time for the second to follow, when Stuart Armstrong sealed the win.
Team News
Dean Smith confirmed on Friday that Tom Heaton is still unavailable for selection as he continues his recovery.
Wesley and Kortney Hause are the only other injury absentees for Villa.
For Southampton, Theo Walcott is available again after missing last weekend’s win against parent club Everton.
Will Smallbone, Mohamed Salisu and Moussa Djenepo sat out the game against the Toffees and will also miss out at Villa Park.
The Boss
"They were good against Everton last week and had a really good comeback against Chelsea the week before as well. They’ve been a team that you can look at since Project Restart that have been really strong, solid and reliable. They’ve got goals in the team with Danny Ings and Che Adams. They’ve got a really good systematic approach that works for them. We’ll have to be at our best."
Dean Smith
