Game On! Aston Villa v Newcastle
Villa Park It's back to work for both sets of players as both Newcastle United and Aston Villa look to bounce back from recent disappointing results.
It's 17th versus 16th this evening at Villa Park as both sides eye three points that will drop the other deeper into the mire.
Neither side has been getting results and neither side is full of confidence although a recent spate of new signings at United seems to have added some renewed energy into the mix. Whether that will be enough tonight remains to be seen but United need the three points ahead of fixtures against Chelsea and Tottenham where, if you go by the form book at least, it would appear unlikely that we'd get anything from those games. Stranger things have happened though...
Up to four new faces could be making their debut for Newcastle tonight. Moussa Sissoko is likely to play but the rest may have to make do with a spot on the bench before making an appearance. However a bench with Yoan Gouffran, Mapou Yanga-Mbiwa and Massadio Haidara gives us infinitely more options than what we've had recently. As always, full team news will be added in at the bottom of this article as and when it becomes available.
Unfortunately we aren't on TV either, at least not here in the UK anyway, which means that a lot of people are going to be after a stream of the game. Not one to encourage this behaviour of course, but I can't really stop people posting links to good streams in the 'comments' section below. Ahem...
Which just about wraps it up. It will be interesting to see how our new faces do this evening although I'm hopeful that the team as a whole decides to turn up tonight. Time is running out and we need to average over a point a game (1.267 actually) to make sure we hit that supposedly magical 40 point mark that is deemed as enough to keep a team safe from relegation.
Howay the lads!
Aston Villa: Guzan; Clark, Vlaar (c) Baker; Lowton, Westwood, Bannan, N'Zogbia, Bennett; Benteke, Bent
Subs:Given, Lichaj, Holman, Bowery, Ireland, Agbonlahor, Weimann.
Newcastle: Krul; Debuchy, S.Taylor, Coloccini (c), Santon; Perch, Cabaye; Gouffran, Sissoko, Gutierrez; Cisse.
Subs:Harper, Yanga-Mbiwa, Williamson, Bigirimana, Anita, Sammy Ameobi, Shola Ameobi
