Match Preview: Canaries versus Lions

Who are we playing?
Norwich City

Where are we playing?
Carrow Road, Norwich

Can I go?
Been sold out for a while so unless you've bagged a ticket, you can't go.

How many are we taking?
Our allocation is a stingy 1,400

Is the ground hard to find?
Nope, dead easy. Well signposted on the road into Norwich and if you manage to find a train that'll get you there early enough, it's a ten minute stroll from the station.

Can I watch it on the telly?
You can. We are live on BT Sport 1 with a 12:45pm kick off. BT's football presenter is a staunch Norwich City supporter so don't expect completely unbiased coverage. If you can't get to telly, BBC Five Live are doing a commentary, as are Free Radio on AM and DAB.

Do they have any other famous supporters apart from that lanky bloke that used to do the Grand Prix?

Her off of Big Brother

Well, they've got Delia, but who cares about her now Mary Berry has nicked her place on the telly? Oh yeah, and Stephen Fry. However, we've got the Prime Minister, the Future King and her off of Big Brother on Channel 5 so we probably win the battle of the celebrities.



Who's playing for us?
Well not Jores Okore and Charles N'Zogbia, who are on the long term injury list and probably not Gary Gardner who is coming back from a back problem. Alan Hutton can't play because he's not in our Premier League squad and Shay Given's absence from the team photo makes him highly unlikely to feature. Other than that, after the Newcastle debacle, places are up for grabs, though it would be very un-Lambert like to make wholesale changes and he might fancy keeping some of the newbies back for the Spurs game on Tuesday.

Who's playing for them?
Their only long term casualty is Elliott Bennett who has a cruciate ligament injury. These days Norwich have the likes of Ricky van Wolfswinkel, Johan Elmander and Nathan Redmond to call upon, so our beleaguered back line will need to be on top form to deal with them, Redmond in particular catching the eye after his move from Birmingham City.

Any useless stats?
Of course, here you go:

• Norwich City don't like playing us, managing just the one win in our last 11 meetings in all competitions (Villa wins 5 Draws 5 Norwich wins 1).
• We have gone a heartbreaking 26 Barclays Premier League games without a clean sheet; a longer run than any other side currently in the division.
• Don't expect a clean game. We've picked up 13 yellow cards in the Premier League this season, while 12 have been dished out to teams while we've been playing them.
• Norwich have only lost one of their last 11 Premier League home games (W4 D6) and that was to us. The point is, they are hard to beat at their place, while we are better away from Villa Park.
• We are the only side to have conceded an own goal this season in the Premier League.

Prediction:

There will be goals in this one and plenty of them. Could go either way.

He said, she said:
"...a game against Aston Villa has nothing to do with a game against Paul Lambert. It's 11 players who will try to compete against each other to get three points on Saturday. It just so happens that their manager is a previous club manager here."  - Chris Hughton  

"I don't have anything to prove. The Norwich thing is finished. It's gone. The two times I've been back the majority of the crowd have been really good with me." - Paul Lambert.