Villa's kids stop United's winning streak

Barclays Under-18 Premier League
Bodymoor Heath

ASTON VILLA 3
(R.Strain 26, T.Strain 52,72)
MANCHESTER UNITED 1
(Redmond 46)

Villa's youngsters brought a United streak of six consecutive wins to an end  on Saturday, easing to a 3-1 victory at at Bodymoor Heath.

The game was an end to end affair - for United, Ashley Fletcher came close to grabbing his eighth goal of the season when Ben Barber’s low cross narrowly evaded the big striker. Villa then took the lead, shortly after the half hour mark, when keeper Aiden Grant gathered a United corner  and launched a speedy Villa counter attack. The move ended with Ryan Strain burying Jerrell Sellars' low cross.

With them having been on such a good run, it was no surprise to see United hit back abd this they did just seconds into the second half with Devonte Redmond’s left-footed shot finding the corner of the net. Villa weren't finished though. Thomas Strain, not to be outdone by his little brother, restored the home side's lead from another neat pull-back from the impressive Sellars.

Thomas Strain completed the scoring  with just under 20 minutes to go, finding the corner of Dean Henderson’s net with a low right-footed drive.

The team face Arsenal at Bodymoor Heath on Saturday morning.

VILLA: Grant, Wildin, Lyons-Foster, Calder, Zazrivec, Cowans, R Strain, O'Brien, Abdo, Sellars, T Strain. Subs: Lewis [for T Strain, 89], Taylor [for R Strain, 87], McKirdy [for Sellars, 79].

United: Henderson; Barber, McConnell, Borthwick-Jackson, Thompson (Reid 76); Harrop, Goss, Willock, Redmond (McTominay 85); Mitchell (Croskery 76), Fletcher. Subs not used: Rashford, O.Byrne.

Goals, goals, goals

GIFs from Faint Zebra

Villa 3 Man City 2 as it was tweeted...

Match Preview: Man City are coming...

Who are we playing?
Manchester City

Where are we playing?
Villa Park

Can I go?
You can but don't hang about. Most areas have "amber" availability, so get in quick if you want to pick where you sit. Some sections, such as North Stand Lower have sold out.

How many are they bringing?
They've sold all of their 2,900 allocation. We charged them £41 for an adult ticket.

Bingo caller at TV-am

Can I watch it on the telly?
Of course not! It's a Saturday three o'clocker! Extended highlights will be on Sky Sports on Saturday night and you can catch a flavour of the game on Match of the Day. As we're playing Man City, we might not even be last this week.

Do Manchester City have any famous fans?
Well there's that John Stapleton bloke off of breakfast telly and of course Noel out of Noel Gallagher's High Flying Birds. And Bernard Manning. Except he's dead. Anyway, we've got Tom Hanks out of The Polar Express. And Noele Gordon off Crossroads. Except she's dead. We win anyway.

Who's playing for us?
With Big Chris Benteke likely on the missing list for six weeks, Libor Kozak should get a Premier League start. Lambo reckons most of the other walking wounded that missed out on Spurs are fit so Gabby and Weimann should return. Ashley Westwood won't recover in time though. Mister Lambert will have to decide on his full backs, having dropped Lowton from Premier League action last week, while Joe Bennett will be anxious to see if he's done enough in the cup game to keep Tony Moon out. Fabian Delph should be back. We gave Bacuna our Player of the Week so we'll be annoyed if he doesn't feature.

Who's playing for them?
Aguero doesn't play, which is one less thing to worry about. David Silva will also miss the trip. Whoever they pick, they'll be scary. Despite their fringe players having a decent run out in the cup, it's hard to see the starting line up differing greatly from the one which ran riot against United. Clichy's fit though and might squeak in at Kolarov's expense.

Any useless stats?
Of course, here you go:

Manchester City have won six of the last seven Barclays Premier League encounters between the teams.

Apart from us, only Sunderland haven't managed a single point at home. Sunderland sacked their manager.

Despite Joe Hart getting pilloried for his form. Man City have kept three clean sheets in their last four Premier League away games.

We haven't kept a clean sheet in the league at Villa Park in 2013.

The last time we met in this tournament was in the 5th Round of the League Cup in January 1994 with Villa winning 2-1

Prediction:
Call us wildly optimistic, but if the Villa that played against Arsenal and Chelsea turn up, we've got half a chance here. What's important here is the quality of the performance as much as the result. If we press the opposition on the ball and if we take our chances when they come, then a high scoring draw could be on the cards. Bear in mind that we predicted loads of goals in the Norwich game before you put your beer money on it though.

League Cup: Villa v Spurs as it was tweeted...

Villa in the Wars: The Instagram pics

Villa stars have been taking to Instagram to share their injuries with the world after a weekend which left Paul Lambert's squad and one of his loaned-out stars in a fragile state.

Most worrying for Villa fans was the hip flexor injury picked up by goal-machine Christian Benteke.  We await the official prognosis for Big Chris's problem but anything between a week and three months is possible depending on how bad the injury is.

#avfc Paul Lambert played all questions on Benteke in his radio interviews just now with a dead bat. No clues at all about extent of injury.

— Mike Taylor (@miketaylorwm) September 23, 2013

Meanwhile, Samir Carruthers has ended up in a surgical collar after a nasty tumble in MK Dons match with Peterborough. Samir took the tumble just after kick off but struggled on gamely for thirty-odd minutes before being replaced.

With injuries to Antonio Luna, Gabby Agbonlahor and Fabian Delph to add to those of Ashley Westwood, Gary Gardner and long term abentees Charles N'Zogbia and Jores Okore, it'll be a test of the depth of Lambert's improved squad to get through two matches this week, with Under 21 players likely to be drafted in to make up the numbers for the Spurs game. 

Match Preview: Spurs in the Cup

Who are we playing?
Tottenham Hotspur

Where are we playing?
Villa Park

Can I go?
You certainly can. Loads and loads of tickets left and at the discount price of £20 (still a few £15 tickets in North Stand lower available at time of writing)

How many are they bringing?
The word is, about 2,800 which sounds OK until you hear that Arsenal are taking 5,000 to Albion

Can I watch it on the telly?
The game has not been selected for live TV coverage in the UK. However it has been selected for screening live overseas, so if you are outside the UK, you should be able to find the game live. For UK viewers, you have to make do with blink and you'll miss it highlights on the BBC's League Cup Show on Wednesday, unless you go on one of those dodgy websites.

Her off of Star Trek

Do Spurs have any famous fans?
If you were famous, would you admit to supporting Spurs? Of course not. Having said that, Simon Mayo never stopped banging on about his support for the club back in his Radio One days. Slightly more impressive is Counselor Troi out of Star Trek (the version with the baldy captain), but then we've got Nigel the fiddle player off the Proms, so we win easily in the celebrity stakes.

Who's playing for us?
Probably whoever Paul Lambert can find that is fighting fit. Gabby, Tony Moon, Ciaran Clark and Fabian Delph all emerged from Carrow Road with knocks, Benteke was on crutches last we heard while it might be a bit quick for Westwood to come back having missed Norwich. Sylla must have a fighting chance of getting a start and who knows what is going on between the boss and Matt Lowton...

Who's playing for them?
This will be Spurs third game in six days, so it's difficult to hazard a guess, but whoever Spurs put out, they'll be competitive.

Any useless stats?
Of course, here you go:

Spurs beat us 2-0 in the 1971 League Cup Final, but we were in the third tier of English football in those days while they were lauding it in the top flight.

We played Spurs again at Wembley in the 1981 Charity Shield, drawing 2-2. Mark Falco scored both Spurs goals and Peter Withe got ours.

Tottenham Hotspur first played Aston Villa on 11th April 1896 when Spurs were still in the Southern League. The friendly match played at Tottenham Marshes ended with a 3-1 win for Aston Villa. Three more friendlies were played until the clubs met in competitive action for the first time in the Third Round of the FA Cup in March 1903 with Villa running out 3-2 victors.

The last time we met in this tournament was in the 5th Round of the League Cup in January 1994 with Villa winning 2-1

Prediction:
Villa Park has hardly been a happy hunting ground, and with Spurs fans snapping up tickets with gusto and Villa sales sluggish, we're quite likely to get outsung. With our injury issues and fear of playing at home, it's hard to see past a Spurs victory. Hope we're wrong though.

He said, she said:
"This team has not experienced having to play again after just two days and we have not been given the same chance as the other teams. So we will have to rotate our squad as the players who played in Cardiff will not be involved.We are struggling a little bit with injuries but we have great strength in depth, although it is not going to be easy."- AVB
"Obviously we’ve got a game on Tuesday but the most important one is the following one on Saturday" - Paul Lambert.