Football tips: Our 3 striking picks for Aston Villa v West Brom on Sunday

* All prices are bang up to date with our snazzy widgets, while odds in copy are accurate at time of publishing but subject to change.

West Brom To Win

Looking at the respective positions of these two sides in the Premier League table, we wouldn’t blame you for shaking your head at this pick. But, hear us out! Over the last 10 games between these two Midlands rivals, West Brom have picked up three more points than Aston Villa (12 points to nine), they’ve lost less than their hosts (four defeats to Villa’s five) and The Baggies have even won more games (three victories to two).

So, despite both of these teams coming in on the back of defeats, you’d have to say Sam Allardyce’s men are the form side here. Villa may just be happy to play a side that they can get the ball off of this week though, after being passed off the park by Man City on Wednesday night.

Sunday 19:00 – Aston Villa v West Brom
BT Sport 1

Given that it’s a West Midlands derby you can expect this to be a fiery affair, but there is no doubt that Dean Smith’s outfit are struggling with the sheer number of starting XI absentees to deal with at the moment. Trézéguet, Matty Cash and, most importantly of all, Jack Grealish all miss out again through injury and suspension, so that will push Villa’s squad depth to the maximum here.

Branislav Ivanovic is the only one unavailable for The Baggies, so we believe Allardyce is the one with more aces up his sleeve in this contest. Add to that the sheer desperation for points as West Brom stare relegation in the face, and their need for victory is exponentially bigger than Aston Villa’s ahead of this late evening kick-off.

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Callum Robinson To Score Anytime

Callum Robinson seems to be flushed with good form at the moment after netting three times in his last three outings in the league. The likeable Irish international also discovered he can score against Premier League teams not named Chelsea recently, as he found the net in West Brom’s 3-0 home success over Southampton.

Previous to that, he had grabbed five other top tier goals in his career, all of them amazingly coming at the expense of the men from Stamford Bridge. Now that he’s realised he can do the business against other teams, Aston Villa better watch out!

Joking aside, Robinson looks to be playing some of his best stuff at the moment and he’ll also have the added carrot of trying to score against the team he started his career at. Don’t be surprised to see his name on the scoresheet again on Sunday.

Over 2.5 Goals

This was quite an easy pick to make, and that’s because both of these clubs have been scoring and leaking goals of late. West Brom may have bombed to a 3-0 defeat to Leicester last time out (there’s no shame in that), but in the two games prior The Baggies scored a whopping eight goals and Big Sam looks to have his attack humming nicely as they attempt to pull off the great escape.

For their part, Villa have conceded in each of their last five games and that’s something Dean Smith will need to fix if he’s going to arrest his side’s current slide down the table. All the trends also point to the Over 2.5 Goals bet landing, as it has occurred in the last three outings for both teams. Don’t say we didn’t warn you!