Aberdeen host Hibs in one of the highlight matches of the Scottish Premiership card this weekend. Despite their blistering start to the season, Aberdeen have hit a tough patch for the first time under Jimmy Thelin and find themselves winless in five in a row. Hibs were bottom of the table for much of this run, but have now taken 7 points from their last four games. Their only loss in this spell was away at Celtic, where they were extremely unfortunate not to score a goal and created 2.31 xG at the toughest venue in the country.

Today's match-up at Pittodrie is therefore very much a battle of sides in contrasting form. With Aberdeen playing host, the impetus will be on them to take the game to Hibs. The sides met in Edinburgh less than a month ago and played out a pulsating 3-3 draw, with three goals after the 90 minute mark.

Whilst there are high winds in Aberdeen today, both of these sides play a much lower percentage of long balls than the non-Old Firm league averages. Both sides will prefer a shorter passing game and like to hit on fast breaks, which should suit the blustery conditions.

Looking at Hibs' chance creation, they are underperforming their xG by 6.4 goals and are behind only Celtic and Rangers on big chances missed in the Premiership. They are clearly creating enough opportunities but are so far not getting the goals to match. With veterans Gayle and Hoilett now fully up to speed, we expect this gap to close. For all their good form, Aberdeen have kept just one clean sheet since August on league duty and Hibs should be positioned to take full advantage of this.

Aberdeen have been the opposite to Hibs in front of goal, scoring way more than their chance creation and xG suggests they should. Having outperformed their xG by 9.5 and missed just 16 big chances, they have been a mixture of clinical and lucky so far. Their dip in form has coincided with a big injury to star GK Mitov. LB MacKenzie is struggling for fitness while RB Milne and winger Besuijen have had surgery this week. Hibs will be without starting CB Ekpiteta and Dwight Gayle should play from the start due to a new injury to ST Kukharevych.

Given Aberdeen need to grab a win to get themselves back on track and Hibs are enjoying a new-found confidence as they look to climb the table, today's game should be end to end.

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