Norwich City v Aston Villa Betting Tip

Norwich City play host to Aston Villa at Carrow Road on Tuesday night as two of last season’s relegated teams go head-to-head.

Having dropped down from the Premier League, both of these two clubs will have been hoping to bounce straight back up. However, although both have performed reasonably well, they aren’t exactly at the front of the queue and there is plenty of work to be done if they are to be plying their trade at the highest level in eight months time.

In terms of their exploits so far this campaign, this fixture sees opposites come together. On the one hand, Norwich are a side who’ve looked strong going forward, but have been let down by some poor defending. Whereas Villa have actually looked fairly decent at the back, but have often struggled to get things going in the final third.

One similarity that this pair do seem to share is their likeness for playing in front of a home crowd. On their own patch, as they sit in 5th and 6th in the home form table, both look serious candidates for a place in the play-offs; however, the form of both on the road needs to improve. With this in mind, it should pay to stick with the hosts in this fixture.

At odds of 11/8, ‘Norwich to Score Over 1.5 Goals’ is the bet to go for. The hosts have been in fine scoring form this season, scoring no less than 35 goals – a tally that is bettered only by league leaders Newcastle.

Although the goals scored by Alex Neil’s side have been spread fairly evenly between both home and away matches, they’ve looked very good going forward when playing at Carrow Road. Having notched 19 goals in nine games, The Canaries have scored two or more on six occasions at home, including in four of their last five.

The catalyst for Norwich’s goal-scoring success this season has been the fact that they boast a variety of attacking options. Both Cameron Jerome and Josh Murphy have six league goals to their name, Graham Dorrans has netted five, while Robbie Brady has chipped in with three. Not having to rely on one main goal-scorer is always a plus and Norwich have certainly found multiple routes to goal.

On the other hand, while Villa haven’t looked overly poor at the back this season, from a defensive point of view they’ve not exactly enjoyed the best of times away from home. Having conceded in all but two of their ten away matches, the visitors have conceded a total of 12 goals. They might have also only conceded two or more goals on three occasions, but the fact that they are conceding with regularity on the road doesn’t bode well ahead of facing a free-scoring Norwich side who’ve scored no less than 12 goals in their last five at Carrow Road.

Steve Bruce’s Villa conceded twice in their last away match and they are fancied to struggle once more. In front of their own fans, coming off the back of a 5-0 win in their last home match, Norwich are fancied to have their shooting boots on again.

See more Championship tips here.