Will a rare 6-days off make a positive difference?

Our hosts will have had a full week since their last fixture but with an injury list half that of ours; I don’t think it’s unreasonable to suggest that we desperately needed the break more than Villa.

Let’s hope we benefit from it…

v Aston Villa

Villa Park

Predicted line-up, subs and outcome:

(Number correct from the starting line-up in the last game: 8/11).

A very fluid 4-1-4-1 / 4-5-1 (occasional 3-6-1):

____________________Haaland____________________

 

 

Doku______________________________________Silva

 

________De Bruyne______________Foden__________

 

____________________Kovacic____________________

Gvardiol___________________________________Lewis

____________Stones___________Akanji____________

 

 

_____________________Ortega____________________

Subs: Carson, Walker, Simpson-Pusey, McAtee, Gundogan, O’Reilly, Nunes, Grealish and Savinho.

Stefan gets the gloves for this one.

Both John and Manuel have resumed training following their latest injury setbacks but it was unclear whether either would be ready to start today’s match. So…BIG guess here – I’m going for the pair to start but both are unlikely to see out the ‘full 90’ if they do. If both are not ready to take a place in ‘the 11’ then we have limited options otherwise; limited to the point where we could see a youth-team player get the nod form his manager. In my predicted line-up, I’m going for Josko and Rico to man the defensive flanks.

Mateo should be okay to start in the defensive midfield position following his return from injury and I’m going for Jeremy, Kevin, Phil and Bernardo to start in advance of the Croatian.

Erling up front.

Scott could possibly be the only keeper cover we will have on the bench but I suppose we could see an EDS stopper joining the 39-year-old. Kyle and Jahmai are two defenders waiting for their opportunity to come on and are likely to see some action, I would think. James, Ilkay, Nico and Matheus make up four midfielders on the side, while Jack and Savinho give us two alternative wing options.

Notable absences:

-       Ederson – Out with a leg niggle. It’s not expected to be a long absence but whether that means he’ll be okay for our Boxing Day match in 5-days’ time I just don’t know as yet.

-       Nathan Ake – Injured with a thigh / muscular issue. Unknown return date.

-       Ruben Dias – Out with his second muscular injury of the season. The last one lasted a month and, similarly, this one is expected to be 3 to 4 weeks.

-       Rodri – Out for the season with an Anterior Cruciate Ligament injury. Surgery was completed months ago and the slow road to recovery continues.

-       Oscar Bobb – Still recovering from a fractured leg that he received in training last August. A likely return is still deemed to be January / February and I personally think that February is more likely of the two months quoted.

Do I agree with Pep’s (predicted) line-up?

Yeah, looks decent, should that be the line-up. I just hope that both Stones and Akanji don’t suffer further setbacks, should they start.

Result?

We all know our troubles and most of us know the various reasons for them…or have our own theories at least. Similarly, I’m sure Aston Villa fans have thoughts as to why their side are so very up and down at the moment. Their form is all over the flippin’ place and they’re so hard to read, from the outside at least.

A last 6 in the league of L D L W W L paints a pretty good picture of our hosts at the moment; scoring 24 (4 less than us) and conceding 25 (2 more than us) in 16-league games could offer up another clue as to their problems. They have fared much better in Champions League as they sit 5^th (from 36) in the long table with 4 wins, 1 draw and just a single defeat (17 places better than us).

Conceding and conceding badly in some matches seems to be an issue for The Villains; whilst they also draw quite a number of blanks at the other end.

Both of those should be seen as something we can take advantage of IF our players step up and start to take more responsibility for their various and numerous failings of late. As for our manager, he’s certainly had the time this week to watch footage of Villa’s games where they’ve been both breached and where they’ve failed to register a goal. Study, study, study; practice, practice, practice…implement.

For the first ever time, I’m going to make a prediction not based on my experience or instinct. Instead, I’m taking a light-hearted, almost festive approach, if you will.

Against Palace, I put us down for a win and we got a draw. Before our clash with Manyoo, I predicted a draw and we lost. Therefore, having been wrong on two, back-to-back occasions – and with our side currently in chaotic mode - I’m pushing for a hat-trick of incorrect score predictions. I’m going for a defeat for The Blues this afternoon and will be crossing my fingers and toes that I’m wrong once again… 😁🤞

Last season’s, corresponding pre-match prediction and result:

Prediction: Draw

Result: Lost

(Pre-match blog posting from that game).

Expected weather conditions during the game: Gloomy skies and light turns to sunshine during the latter stages of the game but the constant feature of the day will be the winds. Average westerly wind speeds of around 17MPH sweeps across the ground throughout the match. Temperatures of around 11C in the late sunshine doesn’t sound too bad for December on paper but that wind does take the “feels like” closer to 9C. Players might want to keep the ball on the grass as much as possible but other than that, there aren’t any conditions that effect the match – the pitch should be perfect.

Merry Christmas to all!

Solidarity