Comments and predictions for St Louis City vs Aston Villa: Premier League's bravery speaks out

Latest St Louis City vs Aston Villa team information

Aston Villa number one goalkeeper Emiliano Martinez – who has been the subject of much transfer speculation – has yet to start a game in pre-season and it remains unclear whether he will replace new signing Marco Bizot next time out.

Ross Barkley and Andres Garcia are out injured and have been retained at Birmingham. Meanwhile, Alex Moreno and Leander Dendoncker are looking for new destinations, while attacking duo Lewis Dobbin and Zepiqueno Redmond are set to be loaned out.

While he may continue to experiment, Unai Emery is likely to field a strong line-up with a mix of experience and youth. Boubacar Kamara – who recently signed a new contract – will start in midfield, while highly-coveted star Ollie Watkins is almost certain to feature up front.

For St Louis, Joakim Nilsson is out of the squad, while compatriot Rasmus Alm is still nursing a hip injury. Henry Kessler and Michael Wentzel are also sidelined with hamstring injuries.

The home team has just added two defenders Jaziel Orozco and Fallou Fall. Korean winger Jeong Sang-bin is likely to continue to start after his debut on Sunday.

Former Borussia Dortmund goalkeeper Roman Burki is now captain of St Louis, while Brazilian striker Joao Klauss leads the attack.

St Louis City vs Aston Villa latest predicted lineup

St. Louis City:Burki; Totland, Baumgartl, Orozco, Padelford; Lowen, Ostrak; Jeong, Hartel, Pompeu; Klauss

Aston Villa:Bizot; Cash, Konsa, Torres, Maatsen; Kamara, McGinn; Malen, Rogers, Ramsey; Watkins

Latest football commentary St Louis City vs Aston Villa

After starting pre-season with a rare defeat to Walsall in an annual friendly, Aston Villa continued their poor run of form as they were beaten by Hansa Rostock in Germany.

The third-tier side surprised everyone by coming from behind to win 3-1, with Unai Emery's second-half squad largely made up of young players who have never played in the top flight.

Since then, the Basque coach has welcomed back many key players and taken the team to the United States for a series of three friendlies to regain fitness and understanding.

Villa showed improvement over the weekend when they held Champions League side Eintracht Frankfurt to a 2-2 draw in Louisville. The German side equalised twice through goals from Ollie Watkins and Morgan Rogers, both assisted by Donyell Malen.

Before returning to England for a friendly against Roma – and then finishing off a busy schedule with games against Marseille and Villarreal – Aston Villa have two more games in the US, against St Louis and Nashville respectively. The aim is to be well prepared for their Premier League opener against Newcastle on 16 August.

Meanwhile, St Louis are going through a terrible run of form in MLS. With five defeats in their last six games, the team is struggling in the Western Conference and is almost certain to miss out on the playoffs.

Most recently, they lost 0-3 to Dallas and then lost 1-2 at home to Minnesota United – despite leading and having an extra man until the 74th minute.

In their last 20 league games, St Louis have won just two, and are increasingly at risk of finishing bottom of the table – with only LA Galaxy below them in the standings.

St Louis started the season under the guidance of former Aston Villa legend Olof Mellberg, but he was sacked after 15 rounds, having earned just 11 points and scored exactly 11 goals.

The English interim coach – David Critchley – was appointed later, although he improved the scoring ability, he still could not help the team escape the crisis. The dream of playing in the play-off this season is almost over.

Latest St Louis City vs Aston Villa score prediction

Based on the above football comments, we and the world's leading football sites have given the results of the match.St Louis City vs Aston Villaas follows:

• Sportsmole:St Louis City 1-3 Aston Villa

• WhoScore:St Louis City 0-2 Aston Villa
• Our newspaper predicts:St Louis City 0-2 Aston Villa

When and where to watch St Louis City vs Aston Villa live?

To watch the St Louis City vs Aston Villa match live in a friendly match taking place at 7:30 am on July 31, viewers can watch it on online sports channels. Wishing viewers happy moments of watching football.