Two of the favourites for promotion from the EFL Championship meet at Villa Park on Saturday evening with both teams looking to get off to a flying start in the 2017/18 season.

Sky Bet Championship – Aston Villa vs Hull City 05/06/17.

Kick off 17:30 GMT

Villa Park

Aston Villa – Best Odds 21/20 (Bet Victor)

Hull City – Best Odds 10/3 (Bet365)

Draw – Best Odds 5/2 (online-betting.org)

Aston Villa

One man has dominated Aston Villa’s pre-season and that is John Terry. The talismanic former England captain has joined the Villains from Chelsea and has been charged with leading them back to the promised land of the Premier League.

In Steve Bruce, Villa have an experienced manager at Championship level and their fans will be hoping with a full pre-season under his belt, he can progress from last year’s 13th place finish. Bruce has strengthened massively with the arrivals of Terry, Glenn Whelan (from Stoke), Ahmed Elmohamady (from Hull), Sam Johnstone (from Manchester United) and Christopher Samba (on a free transfer).

All of the players mentioned have vast amounts of experience in English football and this coupled with Villa’s young prospects like Jack Grealish and Jonathan Kodja could be the recipe for success in 2017/18.

Hull City

Relegation from the Premier League is not an unfamiliar feeling for Hull City fans and neither is uncertainty around the club and unfortunately for them, they appear to be stepping into a season of the unknown once again. Marco Silva’s best efforts to keep them up last season were in vein but landed him a job at Premier League Watford, meaning Leonid Slutski has been tasked with plotting their route back to the top division.

Big names have departed the KCOM stadium over the summer with Curtis Davies & Tom Huddlestone departing for Derby County, Harry Maguire & Eldin Jakupovic have left for a combined £13.5 million to Leicester City whilst Andrew Robertson has joined Liverpool for nearly £8 million.

Slutski has overseen the removal of the nucleus of the squad and began to replace the big name departures – Kevin Stewart has arrived from Liverpool and the prolific Frazier Campbell has joined from Crystal Palace – but he will be hoping he can continue to strengthen the team before the transfer window closes at the end of August.

Head to Head

Aston Villa comfortably lead the head to head 18:6 with 7 competitive draws between the teams. Hull did manage to win the last meeting between the teams though with a 2-0 victory at the KC Stadium in the premier league back in February 2015.

Odds and Predictions

Early season games are always hard to judge but the effective looking recruitment coupled with the optimism around the club gives Aston Villa good reason to be favourites at 21/10 with Bet Victor. Hull could offer good value at 10/3 with Bet 365 whilst these two closely matched teams could well draw at 5/2 with Betfair.

The ‘Draw No Bet’ market offers a chance to back Aston Villa at odds of 2/5 or Hull at 21/10, with the security of not losing your money the game finishes as a draw.

The timing of this fixture in the season means it’s very hard to judge the approach both teams will adopt but Aston Villa will surely be looking to cash in on home advantage and take points off a promotion rival in the process. Villa to be leading at Half Time and Full Time is a tempting 5/2 with BetVictor and with their defensive reinforcements backing Villa to win to nil is 21/10 with UniBet could be a savvy bet.

Top Betting Tip

Our top betting tip for this match is for Aston Villa to keep a clean sheet at 11/8.