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Fulham v Aston Villa Betting: Expect a tight affair at the Cottage

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TQ runs you through the best plays for Sunday's Premiership clash...

Transfer deadline day has come and gone, Capello has named his first England squad and we can now turn our attention to the weekend action. I will be glad to stop debating whether Ronaldo's free-kick was the best ever, whether Alfonso Alves is worth a reported £12m or the whys and wherefores of Beckham's omission from the England squad and get down to some quality Premier League fare.

High-flying Aston Villa travel to Premier League strugglers Fulham on Sunday afternoon and it has all the hallmarks of an intriguing match. Hodgson has been extremely busy in the transfer market while O'Neill is quietly assembling a young, vibrant squad. When Roy Hodgson took the job at Craven Cottage I fully expected him to get them going and make some inroads up the table but that hasn't happened. Although he hasn't been in the job long I am slightly concerned that there hasn't been that traditional uplift in player performance that is often associated with a new manager's arrival.

The Match Odds market has Villa as clear favourites and on current form it is hard to disagree with that. Fulham have not won a game since November 3rd when they overcame Reading 3-1 at home. This is a team severely lacking in confidence and it is no surprise to me to see them trading at [3.6] to win despite home advantage.

Villa on the other hand are in decent form and have a settled side that appears to have a desire to win things for their manager. They are unbeaten in their last eight league games and are high on confidence. It is important to note that five of those games were draws. Digging a little deeper will show interestingly that Villa were a goal down in all five of those draws so clearly are a resilient side. Should they go a goal down on Sunday that is worth keeping in mind. With all the facts at hand I can do nothing but recommend Villa to win this game at reasonable odds of around [2.32].

Roy Hodgson signed seven new players in the transfer window and you can be sure that he will be very keen to get these new guys out on the pitch sooner rather than later. Fulham fans won't exactly be ecstatic about the new names but will have to trust that Hodgson has unearthed some decent buys. Litmanen used to be a class act but at the age of 36 there has to be plenty of doubt as to whether he can cut it in the whirlwind that is the Premier League.

Villa will be without suspended winger Ashley Young for the trip and may struggle to find a rhythm without their main provider. Add that to Fulham's failure to find the net in any of their last three games and you would have to believe that this will be a slightly scrappy affair with little goalmouth action. The Over/Under 2.5 Goals market is always very popular and for this game the bet has to be Under 2.5 Goals at current odds of [1.84].

There is a lot at stake in this Sunday afternoon clash but I don't expect it to be a blood and thunder kind of game. Looking through the likely starting line-ups I can't see any real flash points or potential for a card-crazy type of game. It takes a brave punter to go low on the Bookings Odds market as it is often hard to imagine how there won't be at least a few cards. On this occasion though I am going to get on the 5pts and Under selection for that market as I really cant see more than two yellows in this game.

It is well documented that Villa score a very high percentage of their goals from set-pieces and you can expect that to be their main source of threat on Sunday. The current trend is to concentrate mainly on Martin Laursen and I feel that this will pave the way for big John Carew to get free and nod home the opening goal. As such I recommend that you back Carew in the First Goalscorer market at odds of anything around [8.0]

It will be a great atmosphere at Craven Cottage on Sunday and a clash between two of the games most respected managers. Expect Martin O'Neill to be the happier of the two managers at the final whistle and with some wise bet selections we should be joining him in the celebrations.