Aberdeen travel to Motherwell in the Scottish Premiership on Wednesday night hoping to build on victories in their last two league games and close in on the top two.
Meanwhile, Motherwell have failed to win any of their previous six matches in all competitions, losing their last four in a row.
Match preview
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Motherwell's poor run of form continued last weekend as they lost 3-1 away at league leaders Rangers.
Callum Lang fired the Steelmen into an early lead at Ibrox, which they held for over 70 minutes until Rangers eventually made their breakthrough, scoring three times in the final 20 minutes to secure yet another Scottish Premiership victory.
Manager Steve Robinson was left frustrated after mistakes from his side led to their late collapse but did take several positive aspects from the game.
Motherwell have failed to win any of their last five Scottish Premiership matches, which has seen the gap between themselves in fifth and Hibernian in fourth increase to 12 points.
The Steelmen have won their last two meetings with Aberdeen – both of which were away from home – but they did lose to the Dons at Fir Park in last season's encounter.
Robinson will be eager for his Motherwell side to end their poor spell and put a string of good performances together, starting on Wednesday night, with the hope of closing the sizeable gap to the top four.
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After a run which saw Aberdeen win only once in seven matches in all competitions, the Dons have since won back-to-back matches in the Scottish Premiership against Ross County and most recently away at Kilmarnock.
Second-half strikes from Ryan Hedges and Curtis Main secured the three points at Rugby Park and moved the Dons level on points with Celtic in second place.
Manager Derek McInnes is hoping that his side have learnt from their 3-0 loss at home against Motherwell earlier this season and that they can take advantage of the Steelmen's woes.
Aberdeen have won six of their last eight away league games at Motherwell, including a 3-0 victory in their last visit back in October 2019.
Securing the three points on Wednesday night could see Aberdeen move ahead of Celtic into second place if the Hoops fail to beat Ross County.
Motherwell Scottish Premiership form: WLDLLL
Motherwell form (all competitions): LDLLLL
Aberdeen Scottish Premiership form: WLDDWW
Aberdeen form (all competitions): LDLDWW
Team News
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Motherwell defenders Charles Dunne (groin) and Liam Donnelly (knee) both remain on the sidelines with injuries.
Jordan Archer is expected to remain in goal with both Trevor Carson and Scott Fox long-term absentees with injury.
Left-back Nathan McGinley, who came off the bench against Rangers, could be recalled to the starting lineup to replace Liam Grimshaw.
Aberdeen were dealt another injury blow last weekend as defender Tommy Hoban went off at half time against Kilmarnock with a hamstring injury. The club have yet to put a timescale on his absence from first-team action.
Manager Derek McInnes is likely to start versatile midfielder Ross McCrorie at centre-half alongside Ash Taylor and Andrew Considine as a result.
Wingers Marley Watkins (hamstring) and Scott Wright (hernia) are both sidelined until January, while midfielder Dylan McGeouch continues his recovery from a hernia.
Defender Michael Devlin, who underwent surgery on an ankle problem last week, is expected to be out until March.
Motherwell possible starting lineup:
Archer; O'Donnell, Mugabi, Gallagher, McGinley; O'Hara, Crawford, Campbell; Lang, Watt, Cole
Aberdeen possible starting lineup:
Lewis; McCrorie, Taylor, Considine; Kennedy, Ferguson, Ojo, Hayes; Hedges, McLennan; Main
We say: Motherwell 1-2 Aberdeen
Only once in the last 12 meetings between the two sides have both teams scored in the same game but with the Steelmen and Dons likely to play with attacking lineups, we could see a few goals on Wednesday night. Motherwell are keen to end their poor run of form, but Aberdeen should have enough quality in the final third to break down a leaky Steelmen backline.
Top betting tip
Oliver Thomas
Data Analysis
Our analysis of all available data, including recent performances and player stats up until an hour before kickoff, suggested the most likely outcome of this match was a Aberdeen win with a probability of 45.33%. A win for Motherwell had a probability of 28.32% and a draw had a probability of 26.3%.
The most likely scoreline for an Aberdeen win was 0-1 with a probability of 11.57%. The next most likely scorelines for that outcome were 1-2 (9.01%) and 0-2 (8.34%). The likeliest Motherwell win was 1-0 (8.68%), while for a drawn scoreline it was 1-1 (12.5%). The actual scoreline of 0-0 was predicted with an 8% likelihood.
