Darren Bent Debut For Villa

The January transfer window suddenly came alive this week after Aston Villa unexpectedly splashed the cash on the prolific Darren Bent. The former Sunderland hotshot is an intriguing 2/1 with Skybet and Coral to mark his first game with a goal.

The omens are good as Bent has a decent record of scoring debut goals having done so for Charlton, Sunderland and Spurs. He also has good recent memories of playing Saturday’s opponents, Man City, having scored a last minute winner against them earlier in the season.

If any Villa fans wish to get a little carried away then Skybet are offering 12/1 on the £18m man bagging a brace or 66/1 on a hat-trick. If that happens he may just be worth £50m by Sunday morning. If these punts don’t seem daft enough for you then you can rely on PaddyPower to weigh in with 250/1 on Bent scoring for Villa via a beachball this season.

To judge by the harsh verdict of some fans you’d think the 26-year-old had relied on inflatables deflecting his shots most of his career. But the vast majority of the 81 league goals he has scored since 2005 have been devoid of freakish intervention. That tally puts him ahead of everyone but Drogba and Rooney, who have both only gone one better with 82 each. When it’s factored in that Bent has never played for a side chasing the title this seems even more impressive.

The big question now is whether the England frontman can handle the pressure. Some Spurs fans will say he wasn’t quite up to the job at a really big club. Villa is certainly another one of those. William Hill offer 5/2 on Bent scoring 7-10 league goals during the remainder of the season. With 16 matches to play it will be interesting to see if he remains the clinical poacher we saw on Wearside.