Aston Villa vs Crystal Palace preview: Villa desperate for points in fight for survival

Crystal Palace will be hoping to end their four match losing streak against Dean Smith's relegation-threatened Aston Villa. Villa were dismantled 3-0 by Manchetser United midweek, condemning The Villians to staring down the barrel of Premier League relegation.

Villa currently find themselves well-entrenched in the fight for survival. Dean Smith's side spent big in the summer following their promotion to the Premier League, with close to £100million being spent on reinforcements to bolster Villa's chances of staying up.

However, they have found their return to the top flight thus far to be a challenging one, with Villa currently in 19th position and in dire need of all three points from this fixture to boost their survival hopes.

Roy Hodgson will be hoping his Crystal Palace side can build upon their narrow 2-3 defeat to Chelsea in their last outing.

Following the midweek fixture list, the Eagles sealed their Premier League safety for an eighth consecutive season, with Hodgson's side all but securing their safety courtesy of a string of 1-0 wins prior to the enforced break.

Despite having a less than scintillating record since football returned to play, Palace put in a hard-fought performance against Frank Lampard's Chelsea in midweek, and in spite of the result, the Eagles can take heart from their valiant performance.

Team news

Aston Villa

Dean Smith could welcome back to the starting line-up, first-choice left-back, Matt Targett, who had been missing from Villa's last two outings due to a hamstring injury the 24-year-old picked up in the home defeat to Wolves.

Villa will still be without long term absentee's goalkeeper, Tom Heaton, and striker, Wesley, with the pair both still recovering from knee injuries.

Crystal Palace

Gary Cahill will be out for the remainder of the season, following the hamstring injury the ex-England international picked up in the midweek fixture, leaving a significant hole in Palace's defence.

Roy Hodgson will be able to call upon Martin Kelly to re-join the match day squad, after recovering from a calf and thing injuries which had kept him out since January.

Palace will still be without Jeffery Schlupp and James Tomkins who are both struggling to gain fitness to be back before the end of the season.

Last Meeting

Managers’ thoughts

Roy Hodgson

Roy Hodgson spoke to the media in his pre-match press conference prior to this fixture. He was asked about his thoughts on Villa's precarious League position. He said, "I think most teams will be looking to come out fighting and take that last chance to try and stay in the division. One thing is for certain: everybody knows how important it is to try and stay in this division. That’s something all teams would do."

"We expect Villa to come out all guns blazing and they will be doing everything in their power to get the result against us."

Wilfried Zaha was back to his best against Chelsea and Hodgson was full of praise for his talisman prior to this match, “Wilf was at the top of his game on Tuesday night. I am sure we will see similar performances from him in the final four games."

Dean Smith

The pressure will be on for Villa to get something from this game; with only four matches remaining of the season, the Villains will need to gain all three points from this fixture should they want to stay into contention for Premier League survival.

Smith had this to say prior in his pre-match press conference, "We have to be better, but we created chances against two of the top teams. The lads showed great belief and character against Liverpool and Manchester United and if a decision went our way, it would’ve been close against United. We know how important these last four games are for our season."