Aston Villa travel to West Brom in what is the first of only two Midlands derbies this season. In the past, it has been Aston Villa who dominated this fixture, winning over 17 games up to 2011. But recently, the tides have turned, with West Brom getting the better results and finishing above Aston Villa in the Premier League. West Brom have improved a lot since September, and now they look to continue their climb up the table. Aston Villa have had a mixed start, with Villa beating quality teams such as Arsenal and Man. City but have failed to get points against the likes of West Ham and Hull.
Aston Villa are much better away, Lambert has set up the team to play on the counter and it has proven very affective when away. West Brom on the other hand have massively improved after the signings of Sessegnon andĀ Amalfitano. Following the International Break, Aston Villa will welcome back many first team players.
Team News:
Nickolas Anelka will likely feature in the midlands derby, the French forward was sidelined with a groin injury by manager Clarke is confident he’ll feature. Scott Sinclar is a doubt with a hamstring injury, whilst Chris Brunt, Gareth McAuley and Boaz Hyhill are set to feature despite withdrawing from their respective international teams.
Paul Lambert will see the return of many first team players. Agbonlahor and Weimann have returned to training and may feature in the game. Benteke had a knee problem while on international duty, he is currently a doubt. Fabian Delph and Antonio Luna are fit again. Joe Bennett is still out with a back injury.
Match Stats:
West Brom are unbeaten in their last five Barclays Premier League games against Aston Villa (W2 D3).
Half (7) of the previous 14 Premier League matches between these two sides have ended in a draw. Indeed, all seven victories (five for Villa, two for West Brom) have all finished 2-1.
Christian Benteke has not scored in any of his last five Premier League appearances; his longest goal drought in the competition since joining Aston Villa.
Aston Villa have made fewer substitutions than any other team in the Premier League this season, using just 24 of the 33 possible after 11 games.
There have been 18 goals scored in the five Premier League matches on a Monday so far this season, an average of 3.6 per game.
Likely Lineups:
Myhill
S. Reid-McAuley-Olsson-Ridgewell
Mulumbu-Yacob
Amalfitano-Sessegnon-Brunt
Long
Tonev-Benteke-Weimann
Delph-Westwood-Bacuna
Luna-Clark-Vlaar-Lowton
Guzan
Prediction:
West Brom 1-1 Aston Villa
I reckon this game will be a draw, which isn’t such a bad result as some people may thing. West Brom are now a very good team, they went on to beat United at Old Trafford! Villa are good away so you never know, they could snatch a win. Benteke will be vital against West Brom but so will our midfielders, Villa need to create in order to win.
Adam2231 my heart says a win but the head says another loss, we don’t have that drive in the middle, not even player’s to draw out defenders, I truly love a win but think 2-1 Albion, we are not even sure of players wanting or eagerness to win these games, hope I’m wrong.
Can’t c us losing to WBA so 1.1 draw or 2.1 to us
Mulumbu and Yacob vs Delph and Westwood… Kind of another yikes moment. Though I can see another draw added to that. There’s really not much in it, both have played a lot of the bigger clubs, both have conceded 12, we’ve scored 11, they’ve scored 12, Think the big positive is they don’t have that natural finisher up front, and while Benteke’s been in relatively poor form for his standards up front, he can still finish while they’re relying on Long who’s just not up to it and their forwards, including Berahino have scored 3 goals all season.
I can’t call this one at all.
So it has to be a draw for me.
I’ll go 1-1.
Think this has got 1-1 draw written all over it, expecting a tight and tbh rather dull game. Nevertheless a point in an away derby isn’t the worst result and I’d take it as long as we make sure we beat Sunderland at VP next weekend.
dull scrappy draw I reckon, not one for the neutral but a typical derby game, could see a lot of cards too.
baggies looking much better than the start of the season.
anyone know the situation with guzan? half the time you have to take international break injuries with a pinch of salt as teams managers and players decide to try and rest any ‘injuries’ š although I don’t really see guzan as that type of player plus he’ll be looking to get ahead of howard re the world cup.
Imo the only changes from last game will be lowton instead of karim and gabby for tonev. Think we will win 2 or 3-1 got a good feeling!
Would obviously love a win but 3-2 to the Boings.
Draw for me.
Interestingly, we have played all but one of the teams above us, and only three of those below us.
We need to turn these games into points and move up from midtable.
Unchanged team for tonight, gabby delph and Weimann on subs though
COYL
Can’t call this one at all, 2-1 either way UTV
they must not be 100% yet.
1 0 down lost already now its early but this villa team are crap at responding
2.0 down wtf was bacuna doing
2 0 might as well go home now lads lambert out
Should of been 3 down wot a let off. This hammerings been coming for ages
Is that Randy Lerner in the cheap seats???
Wot a joke. Just no quality in team especially midfield
Lowton on for El Ahmadi push Bacuna into right midfield Gabby on for Tonev and Weimann on for Kozak. Swap Clarke and Baker around because Clarke is getting murderd down the left. If we don’t change it soon it pointless playing the 2nd half. We’ve been shit.
Lambert is clueless knows fuck all about subs
A bit disgraceful so far tbh
oh dear oh dear. its been a long time since ive seen us shoot ourselves in the foot like that.
we are way too deep for 2 nil down, everytime one of the midfield get the ball there’s nowhere to pass except sideways and backwards.
bentekke is a passenger don’t look like he’s arsed, kozac is giving it his best but we don’t look threatening at all while to be fair west brom team look well up for this.
should be 3-0 brilliant tackle by vlarr, slightest miss timing results in either a goal or a red card and a pen.
too many passengers in the villa side tonight.
This has been coming for a while but Wev had a couple of fluke results that have papered over the cracks
it aint over yet mate, seem to remember us being 2-0 up in the same fixture last season. anything can happen but yeah it don’t look promising does it?
Im sick of this fed up with villa and football in general no fun any more
just a point but anyone see the foul at the end? yacob get brought down by sylla and westwood(sylla well lucky not to be booked yet)and yacob rolls on the floor holding his face!?? an example of the things wrong with modern football and a total c**t
3 subs, rolling the dice.
2-2 or 4-0
Lambert needs to go long balls were 2 0 down for fuck sake get in behind wba defence everytime something goes wrong thats all lambert knows long balls got to go
boing boing that you f**kin C**TS!
Thats better get behind there defence gets you goals no more long balls
well done villa, well done lambert for the subs, gamble paid off.
Well at least it’s never boring being a villan!!