Mark Lawrenson delivers Wolves vs Aston Villa prediction

BBC Sport pundit Mark Lawrenson says that Aston Villa and Wolverhampton Wanderers are "pretty well-matched" as they head into Saturday's Premier League clash (3pm).

Villa will make the short trip to the Black Country to face their local rivals, on the back of a narrow defeat to Arsenal, before the international break. While Wolves also fell to a dramatic defeat against Leeds United at Molineux in their last outing.

The Villans fell to a 3-2 defeat against Wolves in the reverse fixture at Villa Park back in October under then manager, Dean Smith. Villa were winning 2-0 and cruising before Bruno Lage's side produced a 15-minute comeback spell to claim the three points.

With Steven Gerrard now in charge, they will be looking to avoid the double defeat to their rivals. The visitors will be boosted by the return of Lucas Digne, who missed out in the Arsenal defeat last time out. While Ruben Neves, who scored the winner at Villa Park, will miss out due to a knee injury.

Villa are currently ninth on 36 points (10 less than Wolves in eighth) but Gerrard's side have a game in hand against Burnley at home.

Nonetheless, former Liverpool defender Lawrenson believes the teams have same similar quality with not much separating them. He has therefore predicted a draw between the sides.

"I'm going for another draw here," Lawrenson wrote in his BBC Sport column. "Villa have lost 10 of their 12 games against the teams above them in the table so far this season, but they are only one place below Wolves and these two teams are pretty well-matched, quality-wise."

Wolves 1-1 Aston Villa.