Match Preview: Villa v Sunderland

For those accusing us of blatantly including naked people in our Match Previews just to boost our "hit-rate", we say "Pah".

Meanwhile, here's French weathergirl Doria Tillier starkers...



Who are we playing?

Sunderland

Where are we playing?
Villa Park, Saturday 3pm

Can I go?
You can. Loads of tickets left.

Can I watch it live on the telly?

It's a Saturday 3 o'clocker, so if you want to watch on the box, you'll need one of those dodgy web stream thingies or a naughty pub with a foreign satellite box.

Big game?
Massive for Sunderland because they are rapidly looking like relegation certainties and need all the points they can get. Massive for us because any other result than a win against a team in Sunderland's form would hammer home just how poor we are at Villa Park.

The shadow of last season's remarkable game hangs heavy over the fixture

Kate Adie dressed for an away match

Do Sunderland have any famous fans?
Well there's one woman war zone, the plucky, seemingly bulletproof Kate Adie, which is quite impressive as famous fans go...but we've got Vassos off the Chris Evans Breakfast Show...so we win!

Who's playing for us?
Tony Moon is on the comeback trail and back in the squad after his hamstring trouble, while the returning Marc Albrighton will hope he's been dragged back from Wigan with good cause. Gary Gardner is back in training but this game is bound to be too soon for a comeback.

Most of us will be hoping that the Monday night's trio of substitutes - Gabby, Andi and Fabian - will be fit enough to start.

It was interesting that that Lambert chose to withdraw Kozak on Monday even though he'd been more effective that Benteke. How long can the big Belgian live on his reputation before he gets his mojo back?

Bacuna had his worst game since the Liverpool match versus Albion so Matt Lowton surely must have a sniff at getting his place back.

Who's playing for them?
Gus Poyet is struggling to find the best combination from Sunderland's array of talent. Bad boy Phil Bardsley seems to back in favour, which ex-Villa man Craig Gardner is likely to be in the squad. Former Villa favourite Carlos Cuellar might not be.

Any useless stats?
Of course, here you go:

• In all competitions we've won 79 to their 54 with 43 draws.

• We managed a league double over the Black Cats last term, Gabby getting the only goal at their place before Villa ran riot at Villa Park with goals from Vlaar, Weimann and Agbonlahor and a Christian Benteke hat-trick. Danny Rose got their goal

• Villa's 4-0 demolition of Sunderland in 1980 was one of the highlights of our championship winning season

He said, She said...

Prediction:
A home win. Can't see us getting six again though.