Ipswich vs Aston Villa Prediction: No clean sheet, no problem once again for Villans

Ipswich Town began life back in the Premier League with back-to-back defeats to Liverpool and Manchester City but have now drawn their last three games in the competition (vs Fulham, Brighton & Hove Albion and Southampton) and will be looking to get their first win on the board on Sunday (14:00, Sky Sports Main Event) when they welcome Aston Villa to Portman Road.

Below you can find my Ipswich vs Aston Villa prediction, complete with all the latest team news and match odds. 

Team News

On-loan Manchester City midfielder Kalvin Phillips missed Ipswich's 1-1 draw at Southampton last Saturday but Tractor Boys boss Kieran McKenna has expressed confidence that the 28-year-old can play a part against the Villans, though he is unlikely to start.

Harrison Clarke and Nathan Broadhead, neither of whom have featured yet this season, are back in training to swell the numbers.

Football Odds

Aston Villa head coach Unai Emery revealed on Friday that long-term absentees Tyrone Mings and Boubacar Kamara have returned to first-team training but suggested the duo won't be considered for selection until after the October international break.

Captain John McGinn will also miss the trip to Suffolk as he continues to recover from the hamstring injury picked up in last weekend's 3-1 victory over Wolves.

Meanwhile, Jaden Philogene, Matty Cash, Diego Carlos and Lucas Digne are all doubtful after missing recent games.

Ipswich vs Aston Villa Odds

*Please click on the link above to be taken to the main Ipswich vs Aston Villa on betfred.com (or app) for all the live betting prices on this match.

Ipswich are 3/1 to secure their first Premier League victory since promotion, giving the Tractor Boys an implied win probability of 25%, while Villa are 19/20, or a 51.3% chance, to make it six wins in a row across all competitions.

The draw is priced at 13/5, both teams to score at 8/13, and over 2.5 total goals at 8/11.

Villa's Ollie Watkins (11/8) is favourite to score anytime followed by teammates Jhon Duran (13/8), Morgan Rogers (9/4) and Leon Bailey (5/2), while Sammie Szmodics (12/5) heads the market for the hosts.

Match Result & Both Teams to Score - Aston Villa & Yes @ 5/2

Aston Villa have barely put a foot wrong this season, winning four of their five Premier League games - only losing to the 2023/24 runners-up Arsenal - and both of their cup matches. They now travel to an Ipswich side that is winless in the top tier since earning promotion earlier this year, and while Sunday's hosts are unbeaten in their last three, two of their draws came against sides - Brighton and Fulham - that finished in the bottom half last season, and the most recent was at the home of the 2023/24 Championship play-off winners, Southampton.

Villa should provide a much sterner test than those three, which is more akin to the challenges of Liverpool and Man City in the first two games.

However, Ipswich can take confidence from the fact that Villa are yet to keep a clean sheet in the league this term, conceding once to each of West Ham United, Leicester City and Wolves, and twice to Arsenal and Everton. Wycombe Wanderers also found got one past them on Tuesday as they exited the Carabao Cup at home to the Villans.

Ipswich have scored in three separate Premier League matches this season, firing past Man City, Fulham and Southampton, so they will back themselves to find a way through Villa's porous defence.

However, with Watkins starting in attack and Duran to come off the bench, the visitors' firepower should prove too much for Sunday's hosts.

Bet Builder - Ollie Watkins (AVL) Anytime Scorer, Youri Tielemans (AVL) 1+ Fouls, Dara O'Shea (IPS) 1+ Shots, Leif Davis (IPS) 1+ Fouls @ 7/1

It was a slow start to the season for Watkins, who failed to find the net in his first three Premier League games against West Ham, Arsenal and Leicester. The England international's fortunes changed at home to Everton, however, as he bagged a brace to help Villa come from two goals down to win 3-2 at Villa Park.

Watkins followed up with his third league goal of the campaign against Wolves last Saturday and his confidence should be sky-high now ahead of a trip to a newly-promoted club.

With Duran, who has scored four times off the bench in the 2024/25 Premier League and struck his fifth of the campaign in Tuesday's Carabao Cup victory over Wycombe, breathing down his neck, the pressure is on Watkins to keep delivering, and it's hard to bet against a man that has delivered so consistently since Emery arrived at Villa Park, so I'm backing the 28-year-old to score on Sunday in the first leg of my bet builder.

Secondly, I'm selecting Watkins' teammate, Youri Tielemans, to make at least one foul at Portman Road. The Belgian midfielder has enjoyed a fine start to the campaign, registering two assists in his first five league games, but hasn't been shy in doing his defensive work, either.

The 27-year-old averages 3.2 tackles per game but, more importantly for this bet builder, is averaging 1.5 fouls per game, making one against West Ham and Leicester, and two versus Arsenal, Everton and Wolves, so one on Sunday is more than achievable.

I'm heading to the other side for my final two selections, with a shot for Ipswich centre-back Dara O'Shea first up. If you read my Southampton vs Ipswich preview last week, you'd have seen a successful tip on O'Shea to muster an effort against the Saints; in fact, I got three of the picks in that 16/1 bet builder spot on, including a card for Flynn Downes, but alas Yukinara Sugawara let me down on the shot on target front.

Nevertheless, I'm including another O'Shea shot because, quite frankly, he's a big lad who always seems to get on the end of things at least once in a match. The Republic of Ireland defender averaged 0.6 shots per game in the Premier League for Burnley last season, scoring three times, and shot twice against both Luton Town and Cardiff in the Championship at the start of the current term before joining Ipswich.

The 25-year-old registered two attempts on his Ipswich Premier League debut against Brighton and followed it up with one shot at St Mary's last time out, so I fancy him to make it a hat-trick on Sunday against a Villa side that has conceded a shot to an opposition centre-back in four of their five league games this season - only Arsenal failed in that regard, with neither Gabriel nor William Saliba trying their luck at Villa Park.

My fourth and final pick is for Ipswich left-back Leif Davis to commit at least one foul. The 24-year-old averaged a foul per game in last season's Championship and is averaging 1.4 in the Premier League, making at least one in every match so far.

He could be in direct contact with Villa right-winger Bailey, who has been fouled once per game on average in this season's Premier League, while the likes of Rogers and Watkins are sure to be floating about and causing problems, too, heightening Davis' chances of conceding a free-kick or penalty.

Offers

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