Real Football Man All of the Football, All of the time
Aston Villa striker Libor Kozak has been ruled out for up to a month with a fractured bone in his ankle, while Jordan Ayew begins a three-match ban.
Ashley Westwood could return from a calf injury but Rudy Gestede and Carlos Sanchez are still sidelined.
Norwich midfielder Alex Tettey must serve a two-match suspension for accumulating 10 bookings this season.
Gary O’Neil is available after a ban and Robbie Brady has overcome illness, but Graham Dorrans is a sickness doubt.
Patrick Bamford will be in the squad for the first time since signing on loan from Chelsea.
Editor’s Note: Here we have it, another 6 pointer, although for Aston Villa it’s more than that. This could be the game that kills off any feint chance they had of survival. Failure to eat into the 10 point gap between Villa and Norwich this Afternoon and you have to say it’s curtains for Remi Garde’s men
Villa haven’t won in their last 3 League matches after being gifted a 1-o win by Crystal Palace last month, it seems like it was a small glimmer in a very dark season for Villa as they have regressed to their normal performances since then.
Last time out they were comfortably beaten by West Ham on Tuesday although there plight wasn’t helped by the early sending off for Jordan Ayew. The 10 Men were easly beaten by Slaven Bilic’s men to compound their misery and increase Villa’s plight further.
Their opposition Norwich aren’t having the best of times either as of late, they’ve lost their last 4 matches and were it for Newcastle being slightly worse than them they would find themselves in the drop zone by now. With Newcastle spending big last month they can’t be reliant on them for too much longer and will have to start picking up wins.
Defence is their key issue at the moment with them conceding 14 Goals in those 4 aforementioned defeats, last time out they were soundly beaten by Tottenham on Tuesday in a game they never really had a foothold in. New signing Ivo Pinto was given a baptism of fire as Christian Eriksen ran him ragged.
One player who admittedly looked a handful in their last two matches is one of their other new signings Steven Naismith, one the scoresheet against Liverpool and a constant nuisance against Tottenham, Manager Alex Neil will be hoping his forward play can pull The Canaries further away from the bottom 3
The last time these two sides met it was a comfortable win for Norwich but now they seem bereft of confidence and will probably set out just not to lose, as for Villa they really can’t afford to lose as it’s pretty much game over for them with 13 games to go. I’m going to go for an uninspiring draw.
