Real Football Man All of the Football, All of the time
Aston Villa captain Micah Richards is fit to face Leicester after being left out of the side in midweek to protect an ankle problem.
Jack Grealish, Gabriel Agbonlahor and Carlos Sanchez are all in contention to return but Alan Hutton remains out with a hamstring injury.
Leicester manager Claudio Ranieri is expected to name an unchanged matchday squad.
Injured pair Jeff Schlupp and Matty James remain unavailable.
Editor’s Note: Stop the press Aston Villa have won a League game again!. The goal wasn’t pretty in Wednesday wins over Crystal Palace but when you’re at the bottom of the table absolutely any win will do. This evening they play host to a Leicester side who after 3 games without a goal are refusing to go away without a fight.
Remi Garde has finally got the monkey off his back in the form of actually getting his first win since taking over at Aston Villa the big question now is can they harness that momentum and start chipping away at the sizeable gap between themselves and safety.
The Midlands Derby is as close to Top vs Bottom as you can get without it actually being 1st vs 20th so Remi Garde is certainly going to have his work cut out if they are going to get enough out of this encounter and continue the feel good factor at Villa Park
They’ll face a rejuvenated Leicester side who exacted some revenge on the late Penalty award in the F.A. Cup away to Spurs by bagging all 3 points on Wednesday through Robert Huth’s header. That coupled with Arsenal’s draw away at Anfield and The Foxes now find themsleves joint top of the Premier League.
They’ll also be boosted by the return of Jamie Vardy, he did feature on Wednesday but wasn’t quite up to speed so with a few more days training to get him back to full match fitness expect him to be fully unleashed on the Villa back four
A derby can always throw the form book out of the window but I think Leicester have got out of their mini slump and will be looking to go clear top for at least 24 hours before Arsenal go away to Stoke on Sunday. Unfortunately for Villa I can’t see them getting two home wins in a row and I think Claudio Ranieri will mastermind another victory for Leicester. An away win for me
