Sky Sports pundit David Prutton is expecting an exciting game when Aston Villa travel to take on Swansea City on Boxing Day.
Both teams will be looking to bounce back after 3-2 defeats last time out, to Leeds United and Hull City respectively, and Prutton sees them cancelling each other out in a 2-2 draw.
“Two sides that will be feeling disappointed over Christmas after throwing away leads at the weekend meet at the Liberty Stadium,” he wrote on the Sky Sports website.
“Swansea lost control against Hull in the second half, while Aston Villa completely fell apart defensively against Leeds. Both will be desperate to right some wrongs on Boxing Day, but I feel like this will be a draw.”
OPINION
A score draw does feel like a pretty reasonable pick here. Both sides will be hurting after their sloppy showings at the weekend and so there will be a lot of desperation in this game, as Prutton says. On paper Villa probably have more quality than the Welsh side, but as we know football matches aren’t played on paper. If the Villans defend as they did against Leeds then they will get absolutely nothing from this game. Swansea are terrific going forward and have a real goal threat in Oli McBurnie. Villa have their own lethal frontman in Tammy Abraham, of course, and so it’s easy to picture the goals flowing at the Liberty Stadium. If you had to pick a winner here you’d probably go for Dean Smith’s side, but a draw is surely a more likely result. One thing’s for sure, both teams are going to come out firing after their mishaps last time so we should be in for a good game.