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| Who needs Daleks when you've got Aston Villa? |
Monday night Aston Villa return to action after a SIXTEEN day break
Who are we playing?West Bromwich Albion
Where are we playing?
The Hawthorns, Monday night
Can I go?
The Villa section is sold out, so if you've not got a ticket already, you can't go
Can I watch it live on the telly?
Do West Brom have any famous fans?Well, there's Frank "Three Lions" Skinner and Adrian "Working Lunch" Chiles but we've got Mrs. Doyle from Father Ted so we win the battle of the celebs.
Who's playing for us?
No idea!
Benteke was badly out of sorts for Belgium and missed the second international while clutching an ice pack to his knee, so he must be doubtful as must hamstring victim Andi Weimann and ankle crock Gabby.
We're desperate to see Delph back after his illness and knocked knee shenanigans while it would prove to be something of a novelty to see a specialist full back in a Villa shirt due to Lowton's form and Luna and Bennett troubling the physios.
Then there's the Guzan mystery that caused Jurgen Klinsmann to leave him out of the USA squad. Perhaps Jurgen is just scared of Villa goalkeepers...
The word from Paul Lambert is that Big Chris, Andi, Tony Moon and Bradley are all fit to play but then we don't always believe him when it comes to injury disclosure. Even our poker-faced, cards-close-to-the-chest gaffer admits that Agbonlahor and Delph are doubts.
Who's playing for them?
Who cares? Still have nightmares about Victor Anichebe after his performance against us for Everton at Goodison last term. One can only hope that Ciaran Clark has learnt from that experience.
Any useless stats?
Of course, here you go:
- We haven't beaten our neighbours since December 2010 when Stewart Downing and Emile Heskey were the scorers in a 2-1 victory
- After West Brom beat us 1-0 at The Hawthorns on 8th April 1985, they had to wait 26 years until their next victory, a 2-1 win refereed by Phil Bloody Dowd on 30th April 2011
- Aston Villa utilised The Hawthorns for Intertoto Cup games in 2000 including the infamous Battle of Celta Vigo
- Villa's biggest victory over Albion came in 1899, a 7-1 success at Villa Park with Billy Garraty getting a hat-trick.
- The tale of how David "Psycho" Cross knocked out Allan Evans in a particularly "lively" derby is told in our All Our Yesterdays section
Paul Lambert "The Hawthorns has got a really good atmosphere because it’s small and it’s on top of you."
Victor Anichebe: “You can’t beat the atmosphere. You look at derbies in different countries and they are not the same as in England and they are always nice to play in. I always enjoyed playing against Liverpool."
Prediction:
A tense evening, a highly charged atmosphere and a one-nil victory to Villa
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