While the two sides contesting the first of our Sunday F.A. Cup fourth round picks may be a division apart, there can be no denying that it will be Championship leaders AFC Bournemouth who will be the more confident going into their game against Aston Villa in the 3pm kick-off.

Under manager Eddie Howe, the visitors have been one of the success stories of the season and currently sit a point ahead of second-placed Ipswich Town having scored an amazing 57 goals from their 26 games this season – eight more than the two next prolific sides, Watford and Norwich.

The same cannot be said for Aston Villa, who currently have just 11 league strikes to their credit and are scoring at a rate of one goal every two games – a return which would ultimately see them finish behind the 2007/2008 Derby County side as the lowest scoring team in Premier League history.

Incredibly, the Villains have failed to score in five of their last six games in all competitions – with their solitary strike coming against Blackpool in the previous round of the F.A. Cup – making the 6/7 on there being under 2.5 goals look a cast iron banker and prices of 2/1 on an away win likely to be jumped on as well. If you want a little more bang for your buck, however, the two bets can be combined at 6/1, which looks a huge price given the two sides’ respective form going into the game.

Surprisingly, the hosts are only slightly better than evens to get the win at 7/5 and look anything but a mortgage job at that price, with the 7/1 available on the game finishing 1-0 to Villa – a scoreline that has decided three of their five league wins this season – the pick of the correct score bets for anyone brave enough to back Paul Lambert’s team to win only their second game in 2015 thus far.

In terms of backing the draw, you can get 10/1 on the game finishing 0-0 – seemingly a big price given four of Villa’s seven draws have been goalless in the league this season – while the 6/1 on 1-1 might also be worth a look if you fancy the hosts to break their well-documented scoring drought.

Finally, of Villa’s paltry tally of 11 league goals, nine of their strikes have come in the first half of games this season, making the 11/10 on Bournemouth to keep a clean sheet in the second period a good compromise for those who are currently unsure of how exactly the game will play out.

At their current rate of goals-per-game, Aston Villa are on course to ‘beat’ Derby County’s total of 20 for the lowest number of strikes in a Premier League season