Premier League: Battle of the Clarets at Turf Moor

Burnley vs Aston Villa

All roads lead to East Lancashire on Sunday when Burnley host Aston Villa in a tasty Premier League clash. This match between Burnley and Aston Villa brings together two teams which will be easy on the eye this season and both are ambitious.

Vincent Kompany’s Burnley are back in the top-flight after a one-year absence, and they opened their campaign with a 3-0 loss at home to Manchester City, but Kompany is adamant his team will improve week on week.

Meanwhile, Unai Emery’s Villa are embarking on a European adventure after finishing seventh last season, and they have started their campaign with a 5-1 loss away to Newcastle United and a 4-0 win at home to Everton.

The Premier League 2023 highlights will be well worth watching, so let’s take a closer look at the two teams.

Talking Points

Youthful clarets will have no fear

Manchester City legend Kompany has overseen a remarkable overhaul at the Turf Moor club which had been the epitome of pragmatic toughness over the previous six campaigns in the top-flight.

He sold many of the Clarets’ established stars, including England keeper Nick Pope to Newcastle and brought in a raft of exciting talent, including wingers Annas Zaroury and Manuel Benson, midfield ace Josh Cullen, and classy centre-back Ahmeen Al-Dakhil.

The new look Burnley took the Championship by storm, breaking the 100-point marker and winning promotion with a record seven games to spare.

They even won the league at the home of fierce local rivals Blackburn Rovers, and for that reason alone, Kompany is already a Burnley legend.

The Clarets boss has added more exciting players to the squad which, with an average age of 24, is one of the youngest in the league.

Striker Zeki Andoumi has been brought in from Basel, and he could turn out to be one of the buys of the summer at £15 million. The 22-year-old has scored five goals in five appearances for Switzerland and has been in fine form in pre-season, also scoring in a 3-0 friendly win over Manchester United this week.

And Burnley’s latest signing is 20-yea- old attacking midfielder Aaron Ramsey, an Aston Villa academy product.

Here at SBOTOP, we’re backing Burnley for a lower mid-table finish with six teams already at shorter odds to take the drop.

Villains’ great start in Europe

While they have had a big loss and a big win in the league, Aston Villa have also put in a high-scoring extravaganza for their fans’ first taste of European football.

Pitched against Scottish club Hibernian in their Europa Conference League play-off, they dismantled the Edinburgh club 5-0 away from home as Ollie Watkins helped himself to a hat-trick.

Wing-back Lucas Digne made three assists as Villa went nap and new recruit Pau Torres had a quiet night in defence. The former Villarreal man will expect to have a busier afternoon against Burnley, but he’s a class act and will settle quickly into Premier League football.

Emery has also brought in French midfielder Moussa Diaby from Bayer Leverkusen and Youri Tielemans from Leicester City, while attacking midfielder Nicolo Zaniolo has just arrived on loan from Galatasaray.

This is a squad well-equipped to fight on two fronts, at home and in Europe. We’re pricing Villa at 101.00 to win the title which makes them a top 10 team, and they have a great chance of going deep into the Europa Conference League.

History

These two teams have had a few decent tussles over the past few years, with Aston Villa winning five of the last 13 meetings, drawing five while Burnley have won three.

During Burnley’s 2021/22 relegation season, they met twice in May. Aston Villa stifled Burnley’s survival hopes with a 3-1 win at Turf Moor before the Clarets grabbed a point in a 1-1 draw at Villa Park.

The Premier League 2023 betting odds point to a fascinating contest, so let’s see where the best value is and make a pick.

Betting Tip

Before the season started, Kompany said that Burnley’s match against Manchester City would be their worst performance of the campaign and, though they had no answer to Erling Haaland, they faired pretty well.

I expect the northern Clarets to grow as the season progresses, and this is a good test of where they currently are. At SBOTOP odds of 2.80 to win, 3.20 to draw, and at 1.58 for the Double Chance, Burnley should get off the mark on Sunday. However, Emery’s team is full of danger and are the favourites to win at a price of 2.15.

I think this will be an entertaining clash with plenty of goals and, for an alternative bet, a correct scoreline of 2-2 is priced at 12.04.

 

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