Villa vs Baggies preview & all the transfer rumours are being laughed at

January 9, 2009 by Martin Banks
Filed under: Aston Villa, Match Previews, Transfer News 

0pic9Tomorrow at 12.45 GMT (3.45 PST), Villa Park welcomes our local rivals, West Brom, to hopefully get shown a trick or two by a top four side. The game promises to be an exciting one, with us chasing a top four finish and West Brom fighting for survival, so both teams will be eager to start the year as they mean to go on.

Former Villan, the legend Paul McGrath, believes we have a side capable of turning them over with a convincing win. We go into the game as heavy favourites, sitting in fourth place whereas Baggies are the ’strongest’ team in the league, holding the rest up.

Curtis Davies and Luke Moore will both hope to start against their old clubs and they’d both love to see their name on the scoresheet too. Scott Carson will also be returning to the ground he called home for a year and will be out to keep a clean sheet.

Villa’s injury worries looked like they were beginning to stack up, with Barry and Luke Young added to Laursen, Cuellar, Carew and of course Bouma, but all except Bouma & Carew will be given fitness tests today, so it’s fingers crossed time. The starting line up will depend heavily on these fitness tests. With no Barry we will probably go with a 4-4-2 line up, with Milner or Young joining Agbon up top, but if he makes it through we’ll most likely go with the exciting 4-5-1 formation that has the potential to terrify the Baggies.

On the transfer front, it seems all the rumours are being confirmed as pure gossip, with O’Neill ‘vehemently’ denying the Upson link the other day, denying the Canella link yesterday and Sbragia denying the Kenwyne Jones one.

Oh well, thats 3 off the list, what about the other 4,968 players you’re supposedly buying then Mart?


Comments

One Comment on Villa vs Baggies preview & all the transfer rumours are being laughed at

  1. Boon on Fri, 9th Jan 2009 15:23

    2. Aston Villa take on West Brom in the early kickoff on Saturday, and this is probably one of the most lopsided matchups. Aston Villa are currently on a roll and sitting in 4th place in the Premier League. They come into this game having beaten Gillingham 2-1 in the FA cup last weekend, and Young, Barry, and Agbonlahor are all expected to be fit for this match. The only doubts are Laursen and Cuellar, the former having some chance of playing this Saturday, but the Villa backline should not have any problems against a West Brom side that has been somewhat toothless in attack since the loss of Ishmael Miller to injury.

    WBA drew 1-1 with Peterborough over the weekend, and although their recent form says they are recovering, with wins over Spurs and Man City, I think otherwise. Both those teams were going through problems of their own and were mentally fragile and short of confidence, which cannot be said of Aston Villa. What is also discouraging is that a strong side was fielded against Peterborough, and their performance was far from convincing. Zuiverloon and Morrison are facing late fitness tests, although they should feature, but Meite and Miller are out.

    (courtesy of The Money Bonzai @ http://www.moneybonzai.info)

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