Wycombe Wanderers vs Aston Villa: Predicted line-ups, head-to-head record, key players, and match prediction

Aston Villa play their first game of this season's Carabao Cup as they travel to League One side Wycombe Wanderers on Tuesday evening. The match played at Adams Park will kick off at 20:00 (UK time) and be featured live on Sky Sports Football.

Brief insight into Wycombe's history

Based in the town of High Wycombe in Buckinghamshire and nicknamed 'The Chairboys', Wycombe have been a part of the league system in English football since 1896. The nickname results from the town's long history of chairmaking. In the late 1800s, High Wycombe became the UK's leading chair producer and it is believed that it was a group of young furniture trade workers that came up with the idea of starting a football team.

Despite being founded in the 19th century, the club remained an amateur football club until the early 1990s. The club had decided near the start of the 20th century that they wished to be the leading amateur club in English football and rejected several invitations to join leagues that would promote their status to professional or semi-professional. It wasn't until 1993, under the management of former Villa boss Martin O'Neill, that they joined the Football League after gaining promotion from the National League. Wycombe have had several famous names lead the club like Martin O'Neill and Paul Lambert.

In more recent times, Wycombe has been a club that has endured several promotions and relegation between the Championship and the National League. The club finally secured promotion to the Championship after years of play-off disappointment in 2019, but unfortunately for the Wycombe fans their one season in the English second-flight was during the Covid-19 pandemic and fans were unable to attend matches. The chairboys were relegated at the first try and have remained in League One ever since.

Wycombe have had minimal success across cup competitions over the past 25 years. In 2001 they reached the semi-finals of the FA Cup and narrowly missed out on a trip to Wembley for the final after losing 2-1 to Liverpool. Then, they reached another semi-final in 2007. This time it was in the League Cup as they fell to defeat against Jose Mourinho's Chelsea. Since that defeat, Wycombe have failed to advance any further than the second round and so this tie with Villa represents their most successful run in the competition for 17 years.

Head-to-head record

Aston Villa have faced Wycombe just four teams prior to this week's game. Villa are undefeated from those four matches having won three and drawn one.

The first meeting between the two sides came in 2003 as Villa won 5-0 at Adams Park. David O'Leary's Villans cruised to victory in this second round League Cup tie thanks to goals from Peter Whittingham, Darius Vassell and a Juan Pablo Angel hat-trick. The Villa team that night was a strong one and included the likes of Dion Dublin, Gareth Barry and Lee Hendrie.

Their next meeting came just two seasons later when they met again in the League Cup at Adams Park. The game was certainly not as straightforward for Villa as Wycombe surged into a 3-1 lead at half time. However, Villa's quality eventually shone through and thanks to second-half goals from Milan Baros, James Milner, Gareth Barry and Steven Davis, the away side advanced to the next round with an 8-3 victory.

The two sides then met in January 2016 in the FA Cup third round, again at Adams Park. This game will be remembered, not so fondly, in the memory of Villa fans during their relegation season. The game finished 1-1 after Wycombe legend Joe Jacobsen cancelled out Micah Richards first half goal. The match is remembered by most due to Richards's, Villa captain at the time, confronation with the away fans following the full-time whistle. The match went to a replay at Villa Park and late goals from Ciaran Clark and Idrissa Gueye secured Villa's progress to the fourth round.

Wycombe's early season form

Wycombe has had a good start to their season, sitting just one point outside of the play-off spots in League One after their opening six games. After narrowly losing their opening two games to Wrexham and Birmingham City, the favourites for promotion, the club are unbeaten having beaten Rotherham, Northampton Town and Cambridge United as well as drawing away at Blackpool.

They have also reached this stage of the competition after beating Northampton in round one and then Swansea City in round two. Their win away at the Championship side was a mightily impressive one and having caused one cup upset already, the team will be up for another one.

One Wycombe fan, Ben Cousins, has provided his thoughts on the club's season so far and his prediction for the clash with Villa:

"Wycombe have lived up to fans' pre-season optimism in the last 5 but this game could be a stretch too far. In front of goal, we are one of just a few teams in the 72 to have scored two goals in every league game so far this season and we have more attacking options returning to full fitness soon. Two of Wycombe's three clean sheets so far have come in this competition but I think it will be a different story against premier league opposition, but I would expect goals. I'm going to say a narrow 2-1 victory for Villa."

- Ben Cousins (Wycombe fan)

Team news

Aston Villa will be without skipper John McGinn after he suffered a hamstring injury in the weekend's victory over Wolves. McGinn headed down the tunnel early before half time after appearing to overstretch for the ball and Emery believes the Scottish international will be missing from the Villa side for several weeks.

Otherwise Villa have no other fresh injury concerns. Matty Cash is nearing a return to the match-day squad but will remain unavailable for the match against Wycombe. Boubacar Kamara is also edging closer to a return after Emery confirmed he is training regularly with the squad. Tyrone Mings could return to the squad for the first time since his ACL injury suffered at the beginning of the 2023/24 campaign.

Key players to watch

For Aston Villa everyone will be watching one man with particular interest. Having not started a game yet this season and coming off the bench to score four goals in the opening five league games, it is likely Jhon Duran will lead the line for Villa. Following a difficult summer transfer window, Duran has returned to Villa with a great attitude and his performances and goals have evidenced that.

For Wycombe Wanderers, 37-year-old Gareth McCleary is often the man they turn to for inspiration. The former Reading and Nottingham Forest winger, who has 24 caps for Jamaica, has scored two goals and provided one assist so far this season. McCleary likes to take on his opposing defenders and has skill and an eye for a pass that can create goal-scoring opportunities.

Cameron Humphreys, on loan from Premier League Ipswich, has also started the season well and scored two goals from midfield. He scored a late winning goal on Saturday to clinch victory over Cambridge United and his energy in the middle of the park will be something for Villa to consider.

Predicted line-ups

Wycombe Wanderers: Ravizzoli, Grimmer, Skura, Low, Harvie, Scowen, Butcher, Humphreys, McCleary, Sadlier, Kone

Aston Villa: Gauci, Nedeljkovic, Konsa, Bogarde, Maatsen, Barkley, Tielemans, Bailey, Buendia, Ramsey, Duran

Match prediction

Unai Emery is likely to make the most of his squad depth and roll out the rotations so that the regular starting players can reserve their energy before a difficult October fixture schedule. With that in mind, I would still expect Villa's second-string side to be able to control this game and have enough to progress to the fourth round. Villa have struggled to keep a clean sheet so far this season and I do believe that the League One's sides fighting spirit will give them chances.

Wycombe 1-3 Aston Villa (Duran x2, Buendia)

UTV