Michael Owen predicts winner in Aston Villa clash v Norwich City
Michael Owen has predicted a “comfortable” win for Aston Villa on Saturday [April 30] afternoon as they host relegation strugglers Norwich City.
Steven Gerrard’s former Liverpool teammate tipped the Villans to win the Premier League clash 2-0.
Despite rarely being involved in the relegation conversation, Owen insisted that a win at Villa Park against former Lions manager Dean Smith would guarantee their top-flight safety.
He told BetVictor: “Villa haven’t won in over a month, but that point against Leicester was a valuable one.
“At this stage of the season, all that matters is getting enough points to secure safety. A win here would guarantee safety, and I can see them getting it.
“Norwich are now ten points off safety, and clearly are needing a miracle to stay up. They just don’t score enough goals, that’s been the biggest issue all season.“For that reason, I can only see a comfortable win for Villa here. 2-0.”
This might be a tougher game than many people might think. Smith will surely have a point to prove on his Villa Park return after he was sacked this season.
He will be fuming if Gerrard and Villa make a show of him whilst he guides Norwich to relegation.
Obviously, it isn’t his fault because they were awful before he came in and despite making them slightly better, they are still way below the level of the Premier League.
The Lions have to treat the game with a lot of respect though. Often teams that are seemingly dead in the water pull off shock results which is the last thing Gerrard can afford to do.
Villa are in the midst of a barren run and this is a very winnable game at home that needs to be taken advantage of.
Both managers will have a point to prove and hopefully, the Villa man comes out on top.
In other Aston Villa news, Villa must ignore Luis Suarez signing this summer, he’s past it