Stoke City face Premier League Aston Villa as Potters fans return to Bet365 Stadium

Stoke City’s first home pre-season friendly in front of supporters comes as the Potters welcome Dean Smith’s Aston Villa.

The team from ST4 will become the latest club to open it’s turnstiles to supporters this weekend, in what is the first time Potters fans will get their live Stoke City fix since Michael O’Neill’s side put five past Hull City in March 2020.

That evening, the turnstiles were locked and haven’t reopened for a first team game since, although 2,000 spectators did get to watch Stoke City’s U23s face Sunderland U23s in a Premier League 2 play-off back in May.

Not only this, Villa will bring their share of the gate as 3,000 of the Claret and Blue faithful are set make the trip up the M6 to the Bet365 Stadium for the first time in two years, and they are expected, as always, to make their presence felt.

Stoke City

The Potters have enjoyed an unbeaten start to pre-season so far. Stoke have played three friendlies, the first ending in a 1-1 draw to Scottish Premiership side Hibernian with City’s goal coming from hot-heeled winger Alfie Doughty on the stroke of half time.

A week later, following a training camp in Belfast, the Staffordshire side faced Northern Irish champions Linfield in a game where the Potters ran rampant as Jacob Brown netted a hattrick, Steven Fletcher scored a spectacular bicycle kick, before Nick Powell and D’Margio Wright-Phillips converted in the second half.

Stoke’s latest pre-season outing came on Tuesday night as they made the short trip to Crewe as O’Neill’s side narrowly edged past the Railwaymen 3-2 with first half goals coming from Danny Batth, Steven Fletcher and Nick Powell.

The Staffordshire side’s key player is Nick Powell. The 27-year-old has scored two goals so far this pre-season campaign as he looks to improve on a stellar season last term where he accumulated over 15 league goal contributions which earned him a spot in the WhoScored.com Championship Team of the Season.

Unfortunately for the Potters, they are still without lethal attacker Tyrese Campbell who continues to recover from an ACL injury sustained in December last year. A catastrophic loss which saw Stoke fall down the league table for the remainder of the campaign.

Aston Villa

The Birmingham outfit have only played one pre-season fixture so far which came in midweek against Walsall. Villa came away from the Banks’s Stadium with a comfortable 4-0 victory – the goals for Smith’s side coming from an Ollie Watkins brace before Jaden Philogene-Bidance and Aaron Ramsey clinched the Villains’ third and fourth goals of the night in the second period.

Aston Villa’s key asset for this encounter would be Jack Grealish, however following his successful Euro 2020 campaign with England, the 25-year-old is still away on holiday in Mykonos with some of his England teammates.

Therefore after an impressive start to pre-season, the one to watch in claret and blue is Watkins. The 25-year-old forward scored 14 goals and provided five assists throughout his maiden Premier League campaign, as well as two goals in one pre-season appearance, Watkins could prove a handful for the City defence on Saturday afternoon.

He has linked up well with Emi Buendia, who himself enjoyed an excellent campaign with EFL Championship winners Norwich last season – scoring 15 goals and chalking-up 16 assists throughout the season. The Argentine came away from Villa’s midweek friendly with two assists to his name as he fed Watkins who gobbled up his chances. A deadly dynamic duo to watch!

For the Birmingham-based side, Trezeguet is absent with an ACL injury which he suffered in April.

As well as the Egyptian, Aston Villa manager Dean Smith will also not be in attendance at the Bet365 Stadium on Saturday as he is isolating at home with his family.

Head to Head

The all time record between the two Midlands outfits is 51 wins to the Villa, 32 draws and 35 victories in favour of the Potters.

You don’t have to turn back the clock far to find the last time these two sides met, as last October in a Carabao Cup Round of 16 tie saw O’Neill’s side walk away from Villa Park with a 1-0 win thanks to a headed goal from Sam Vokes.

The previous meeting between the sides in Staffordshire in 2019 ended in a 1-1 stalemate as Vokes was on the scoresheet after a beautifully backheeled finish opened the scoring early on before Albert Adomah pulled the Villains level just after the hour mark. Villa would then go on to win their next ten games on their way to promotion to the Premier League where they still find themselves today.

James Chester could face his old side for the first time since joining Stoke on loan in January 2020 – a move which was made permanent the following summer. The experienced defender was a fan favourite at Villa Park and was part of their promotion squad in 2019, however struggled through the duration of the campaign with a knee injury.

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