13 Quirky Aston Villa Stats for a Quirky Season


1.       The last two home teams to score against Villa were West Ham and West Ham!

Villa have kept clean sheets in all but one of their away games this season. The only team to register home goals against Villa this season is West Ham (scoring twice with their only two shots on goal). Prior to that, you have to go into last season to find a home team scoring against Villa, and it’s West Ham again, in their 1-1 draw with Villa on the final day of the 2019/20 season.

2.       Promoted teams and 3-0 wins.

Villa have faced all 3 promoted teams this season and in each game the result has been a 3-0 away win. Leeds claimed a 3-0 win at Villa Park, while Villa beat West Brom and Fulham away by the same score-line.

3.       No-one has scored an equalizer against Villa.

The first team to score has won every Villa game this year. That doesn’t mean no-one has equalized in Villa games. Villa scored levellers against both Brighton and West Ham. Yet no-one has scored an equalizer against Villa.

4.       Jack Grealish: Europe’s most fouled player.

Pundits commonly tell the half-truth that Grealish is the Premier League’s most fouled player. Truth is, he’s the most fouled player across the five major European leagues (England, Spain, Italy, Germany, France). Not only that, he was also the most fouled in Europe last season.

5.       The Penalty-less foul king

Despite being the most fouled player across Europe for each of the last two seasons, Jack Grealish had not won a penalty until his most recent match against West Brom. Strangely enough, Grelaish had not won a penalty since playing in the Championship play-off semi-final, also against West Brom.

6.       Villa’s crazy November

In November Villa conceded 11 shots on target across 4 games. 8 of those 11 shots were goals. In other words, if you shot on target against Villa in November, it had a 73% chance of going in. To put that into perspective, Leeds gave up 14 shots on target to Man United this weekend, which is 3 more shots than Villa gave up in their 4 November games, and yet they still lost 3 of those matches.

7.       Villa lead the league both offensively and defensively.

Villa lead the Premier League with 16.2 shots per game, ahead of Man City and Liverpool in 2nd and 3rd. But far from being gung ho, Villa also lead the league in clean sheets. This is even more impressive when you consider that Villa have played fewer games than any other team, and, in most cases, having played two fewer games.

8.       Villa are streaks ahead of anyone else in times fouled per game.

Villa sit on 16 times fouled per game this season. Leicester (in second place) are fouled a distant 12.3 times each match. Sheffield Utd sit bottom of the pile, being fouled less than 7 times per game.

9.       Villa have England’s first and second most fouled player.

Obviously, Grealish is top dog when it comes to being fouled. He’s ahead of Zaha, Mane and Saint-Maximin in second, third and fourth place. But sitting in fifth is the second most fouled Englishman after Grealish. It’s Villa centre half Ezri Konsa, who is fouled 2.6 times per game (a fraction behind Zaha with 2.8).

To find the next centre half after Konsa you need to go to the 49th most fouled player: Arsenal’s Gabriel, with 1.3 times fouled per game (half that of Konsa). Indeed Konsa is the most fouled centre half across the five big European leagues and the 19th most fouled player in those leagues.

10.   Only two teams have scored right footed goals against Villa: Brighton and Southampton

The first five goals Villa conceded this season were all left-footed: the first two from Salah and the next three from Bamford. Villa themselves are remarkably left sided, with 7 of their 17 starters this year being lefties (Targett, Mings, Hause, Nakamba, McGinn, Traore, Hourihane).

11.   Villa keep the most English of clean sheets.

Villa’s starting back four are all English and in the absence of Konsa they have called on an English replacement in Hause. Those five defenders have been responsible for a fifth of all clean sheets kept by English defenders this season.

12.   Villa are weirdly better and worse than Liverpool at shooting.

Liverpool scored 7 against Palace at the weekend, meaning they’ve both scored and conceded 7 in a match this season, in only 13 games played. Yet Liverpool notched their 7 goals with only 14 shots against Palace. Strangely, Villa had nearly twice as many shots in their game against Burnley (27) yet failed to score one! Somehow Villa’s ability to create chances was twice as good as a team who won 7-0, yet their ability to convert those chances was through the floor.

13.   Jack Grealish’s away day passing.

Grealish made 8 key passes in Villa’s 3-0 win over West Brom. That’s the most made by an away player for five years.


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