Aston Villa host Tottenham in this round of the League Cup. Both teams are expected to make massive changes due to fitness concerns over numerous amount’s of players. Aston Villa progressed into this round by beating Rotherham 3-0, while Tottenham automatically qualified due to their Premier League position last season.
Paul Lambert may give starts to Steer, Sylla, Bennett, Helenius and Kozak who are yet to start in the Premier League this season, Lambert has mentioned that he will prioritise the League over the League Cup. Tottenham manager Villas-boas plan’s to do the same, he was furious at the scheduling of the Tottenham game, which resulted in the team play 3 games in 6 days. He mentioned that no one from Sunday’s game will feature tonight due to fitness concerns.
Team News:
Aston Villa have several injury concerns ahead of this game. Christian Benteke will miss this game due to a hip injury suffered in last weekends Norwich game. While Agbonlahor, Delph, Luna and Clark have all picked up slight knocks and may also miss out. Westwood remains a doubt. Okore, N’Zogbia and Gardner all remain out through long-term injuries.
Tottenham will rotate the squad, but only Rose and Defoe remain serious injury doubts.
Match Facts:
The two clubs have met four times in the League Cup, with Aston Villa winning on the last two occasions in 1987 and 1994.
Aston Villa haven’t beaten Tottenham since September 2008, they have played 9 times since then.
They have only conceded one goal to date – Olivier Giroud’s winner for Arsenal.
Predicted Lineups:
Steer
Lowton-Vlaar-Baker-Bennett
Weimann-Sylla-El Ahmadi-Tonev
Helenius
Kozak
Kane
Lamela-Chadli-Lennon
Sandr0-Holby
Naughton-Kaboul-Chiriches-Walker
Friedel
Predictions:
Aston Villa 0-2 Tottenham
Tottenham are favourites for a reason, I change the entire Spur’s first team and it’s still really strong. Aston Villa might’ve had an extra day of rest but if a young, inexperienced defence has to face Lamela, Chadli and Lennon it’s never going to be easy. I hope Aston Villa can get a good result and continue their League Cup run, but it’s going to be massively difficult. Aston Villa even play worse at home!
The sky is not falling.
We lost to a better team, there is no shame in that. With a record of 0-9 against Spurs this loss should come as no surprise. The fringe and new players had a proper run out, we saw a new formation, and played with actual wingers in the first half. All things we wanted, sadly it didn’t work out any better.
Robinson was a surprise but did well. Tonev was lively at the end and had a great strike on goal in the second half. Baker looked fit and solid at times, hopefully his fitness holds up. All-in-all, the game doesn’t mean much. If anything it reinforces the issue that we need another creative midfielder (Gardner maybe?) as well as shows what we need to work on in training – passing. Our upcoming fixtures will be tough but the closer we get to November/December the squad should hit a streak of good fortune.
But wev lost 3 home games in a row conceding 7 and scoring once and the goal scorer is out for 6 weeks. Ffs can’t u see we are in big trouble
Nope, reason? the EPL’s quality is lowering. While a few clubs have gotten better, like Spurs, the overall quality of the EPL hasn’t and despite losing 3 games, Villa sit 13th, with 6 goals scored and 6 conceded, after the hardest start of any team. Don’t really think we’re in big trouble as we’ll still beat a fair few clubs on the road which will be enough, sadly. Although the games aren’t entertaining at all to watch.
Not as hard a start as utd who played city Chelsea Swansea away ad Liverpool. The 2 so called easy games Newcastle we lost and Norwich we won but didn’t deserve to.
We scored, Norwich didn’t, how didn’t we deserve too? They had I believe 2 shots on target.
Norwich away is just as hard as Swansea away, as Norwich never lose at home, bar to us apparently.
Because they were still the better team for most if the match they still had a pen and a good chance in last few minutes plus a couple of goalmouth scrambles they were unlucky not to score from. Today v spurs they had 8 shots on target to our 2 a d we are the home team ffs
But that doesn’t mean that we didn’t deserve to win. We scored, Norwich didn’t. They had a penalty, it was saved, they ruined their 1 good chance at scoring, that’s their fault and weren’t unlucky (luck doesn’t exist) not to score, they failed miserably.
Today Spurs were clearly better, Spurs are clearly better than Norwich. Even as a home team we were going to get beaten by Spurs, our first or second team to mostly their first team. They have a far better Manager and were able to spend over 100m on a squad after selling a player for 100m Euros. It’s probably not fair but that’s Football.
We are only 5 games into the season, anything can happen. So while I am concerned about our home form and the news of Benteke is not good, I really do not think we are in big trouble yet. We still have options and the season is still young.
What are these great options then marvin
As long as Gabby and Wiemann stay fit they can come from anywhere. Both players are our creative unit at the moment.
Remind me again how many gabby and weimann have scored this season!!
Ask Benteke, without their service and creative spark half of his goals would be nonexistent. If we can keep these two fit and creating opportunities we should be fine.
Well put Marvin. Weimann assisted Luna’s goal against Arsenal, Gabby assisted Benteke’s goal against Chelsea, Kozak’s winner against Norwich. Those 2 are our only creators at the moment and Benteke wouldn’t have the goals without them.
wasn’t it only a few days ago that someone said on this very site that you cant tell how far we have come from a meaningless cup game. get behind the club , your comments do more harm than good i know we all feel the pain but man up and accept it we were beaten by a better team and a few quirky decisions
What was the excuse at home to Newcastle then
A really bad game? Teams have those…
that’s just a cop out response i can take criticism of my club so long as you have constructive answers other than were crap and lerners sold us down the river im no business man but if this was intentional to make more money then it must be a new secret plan that no one else has thought of
Have villa fans got short memory’s we were om a par with Tottenham until lerner sold us down the river we should be completed with the likes of Tottenham we deserve better than this
Exactly which was the beginning of the end for MON Lerner quite rightly saw were spurs were on a much lower wage bill than MON put our ridiculous old timers on Amd do t forget how long their co tracts for ffs.
But Spurs were constantly selling players and were struggling, as are we now. We just don’t have a player to sell for 100m, we don’t have more than 1 owner, Spurs are owned by a couple of investors who can put money into the team, plus a new stadium. We don’t have a manager to bring in the likes of Lamela, you really think someone as good as Lamela would come in under O’Neill? Or someone like Eriksen, of course not. Under Houllier, yes, but AVB’s a far more respected manager, they have a new sporting director who’s well respected in South America which is why they can bring the likes of Lamela and Paulinho. We have neither.
so walker, vertongan, dembele, paulinio, dawson, holtby and sandro are b team are they?
We had vlaar, bennet, baker, lowton, sylla and kea all first team regulars this year.
Not so far, Sylla and Bennett aren’t.
Ok hands up who likes villa at the moment and is happy with lerner running of the club? No hands up I rest my case
What’s your point?
sorry I forgot defoe, he plays for England doesn’t he?
So Okore out for the season and Benteke out for 6 weeks…all we need now are injuries/suspensions to Guzan and Delph and we’ll be set!!
I know ooah but your stating we got beat by a b team and that is clearly bollocks! isn’t it?
Ok last season we got beat 4.0 at home at least by their first team now we get beat 4.0 at home by their B team doses it really matter bottom line is we are still shit end off
Fulham got sold recently so there are buyers out there Andrew were just a pension for Lerner were a shadow of a club were dead as club lifeless what happened?
Just seen the goals on Ssn defending was woeful and yet again we concede from a corner. Just awful
True, but then the real game changer was
https://fbcdn-sphotos-e-a.akamaihd.net/hphotos-ak-frc1/995531_10151870743614557_553480979_n.jpg
And they spent 5m after they sold the club… Woohoo?
Try telling lambert and hes lemmings that
I meant, they didn’t spend much at all, and they were sold in early July so had more than enough time to spend. They spent like 8m total all summer.
i’ll say again just in case it isn’t quite clear enough.
once we were 2-0 down they were always going to hit us on the break but its a cup match what were we supposed to do? the same thing happened to united against city.
the score line is deceiving and flattering.
im not for a minute saying its all sunshine and roses but here we go again, lambert out learner out, villa out!
I cant.believe there are still fans defending Lerner and this inept team WE ARE SHITE. Making excuses for one shocking performance after another is not going to bring change. What has Lerner done for Villa in his time here ? We are worse now than under Ellis and that takes some doing ! The only way forward is a fresh start with new owners with ambition. Lerner has wrecked the club and the fans need to stop making stupid excuses and show our hapless yank we want him out.
Agree mate to much blind loyalty and not enough questions being asked
It’s not blind loyalty, it’s pointing out the obvious. Despite you claiming Villa are shit, Villa sit 13th after again the hardest start of any club, including United who shouldn’t struggle with their team compared to Villa’s. We’re just not crying ourselves to sleep yet because Villa aren’t in danger yet. After we lose to City, if we continue to drop points against Hull, Spurs again, Cardiff, West Bromich and Sunderland. If we don’t get a single win, or even 2 wins in there, then you’ll see a lot more fans turning.
Nm this has been going on for 4 years mate its not going to change with Lerner ask the Cleveland brown fans stop defending him this is a joke
whatever guys I give up have fun slagging villa off for another night.
catch yers on a different day when I can be bothered.
head and brick wall comes to mind, no objectivity at all :/
Seriously getting fed up of this site. How many of you lot moaning actually watched the game ffs?! After hearing Lambert’s press conference and seeing both teams starting line ups the result was pretty clear. They did not play a second string, 4-0 flattered them and they were aided by the fact that there first 2 goals came at perfect times. This opinion was also backed up by a hardened spurs fan who I watched the game with. He agreed, for 45 mins there really wasn’t a lot in it.
The fact is they spent over £100 million this summer and god knows how much the year before, where as we have had to up the numbers while compromising quality in most cases. We didn’t get thrashed, our weakened team was beaten by a starting 11 that is better than at least the bottom 12 of the premiership. Wake up, smell the coffee, things are not that bad and things will get better. Lambert’s doing a reasonable job with the tools at his disposal, Lerner is not going anywhere soon, and I, as many other fans, will continue to support the club through these tough times because that’s what real fans do. UTV, Keep the faith and SOTC. Villa till I die.
You’re right, I personally didn’t expect a win. I was more interested in watching the likes of Albrighton, Helenius and Bennett given a chance. Spurs are a strong team, and they’ve spent crazy money.
Let’s focus on the League, we had a tough draw and I’d like Lambert to get Villa into the top 10 this season.
Echo your sentiment Jaymo83 but getting beat at home all the time it is getting harder to stomach
at last a couple of proper villa fans supporting there club instead of oohahhs lemmings slagging of the team
Its funny when fans say support the club stop moaning when villa park like a morgue so where are you? Villa are shit and are going down a true fan would stand up and want something done to correct it some villa fans are like drug addict don’t realise they got a problem right in front of them
It’s cute little kids come on here trying to claim how “true fans” would act.
Every single Villa fan knows it’s not all great at Villa Park, we’re just not whiny little children balling their eyes out making claims that we’re going down and we’re shit with 33 games left to go and we’re not even in the relegation zone at this very moment. And how 1 single call from the officials tonight would completely change the game.
Well said villa 1996
And some are mindless idiots like yourself who spout absolute shit.
Tell you what, why don’t you, OohAh and Terry get yourselves down to the next home game, make yourselves some little placards, remember to check your spelling, and go and protest.
Please tell me exactly, what do you expect the club to do at the minute?
And please don’t say Lerner sell up as like many other people have said, it’s simply not that easy.
Blind loyalty will not help the club it is obvious things are not right we have been shocking now for over 3 seasons and things are getting worse. Excuses are all we get from some deluded fans after yet another.heavy defeat ignoring the facts which are that the team is awful.and has little quality caused by an owner who has no ambition or will to succeed. All this crap about lotalty is laughable. Lerner is a sick joke and needs to go. We had good players but the clown sold them all and niw look at us a LAUGHING STOCK
No surprise at all. Spurs have a squad full of quality players, even their subs/ 2nd team is far better than our first team.
What Lambert has assembled is a team full of bargain buys, none of whom are good enough at the top level
For all those who claim Lambert needs time and patience, wasn’t that exactly the same thing that was said the last time Spurs beat us 4-0 at home 9 months ago. And where is the progress since then?
The only plus point is this year we weren’t humiliated by a league two club in the process of being knocked out the cup, incidentally the last time I entered VP. Won’t be returning and don’t miss it. Lerner is playing the fans as fools, those with blind loyalty remain in the hope of better days that will never come. Sad times for an ailing and ambitionless club.
Nobody tells me Billy Boots that people like myself are not true fans, you are the ones that make football teams what they become, Aston Villa are shite with no hopes of going anywhere, you stick with a team that we both love and will not get anywhere in your time and mine, just remember this the person who owns Villa is a yank out for money, he will serve you shite sport at your cost , he did it in America with their sport, a true Villa fan can see further than the end of their noses, but people like you cannot, we have more people now shocked at the end product of football dished up at Villa park now than ever. Billy boots wake up that’s my team, you and others don’t tell me to fuck off, I’m more a supporter than you will ever know. Get real.
Well said Old Bill. It’s all pointless (literally farvtoo often). Villa will be just like the Browns for as long as Lerner is here.
And Lambert’s bargain basement lower league buys will just take us down.
We were ahead of Spuds under MON. Now we’re relegation candidates for the third year running. Fucking joke club.