Match Preview: Villa v Leicester

by Dek Hogan 

Who are we playing?
Leicester City on Saturday 16th January at 5.30pm.

Where are we playing?
Villa Park, you may know where it is.

Can I go?
Yep. Plenty of tickets left.

Easy to get to?
Dead easy, unless you start drinking at your usual matchday time, in which case, you may be swaying a bit when you finally emerge from the pub.

Can I watch it on telly?
Sky Sports and loads of pubs, but come and watch the game in the flesh if you can. It's the best way to do it.

Big game?
Fairly.

It's certainly huge for Leicester City. If they want to remain genuine contenders for the league title then it's games like these they have to win and win well, because the teams they are jousting with for the big prize with certainly will.

Those Villa fans who still believe escape is possible will have been buoyed by Tuesday's narrow victory over Crystal Palace. Indeed even those of us who think the drop is inevitable but just hope we go down showing some fighting spirit were encouraged by what we saw.

After the debacles of Norwich and Sunderland and the acrimony and dissent at Wycombe, it was absolutely vital that Villa's players responded with a good performance and they certainly rewarded those of us who continue to offer our support with a valiant if unspectacular display.

It was key to note that captain Micah Richards and gum gobbing keeper Brad Guzan found themselves benched, though Guzan's masticating partner Lescott got a start and emerged from the night as an unlikely hero.

It would be too early to say that Garde has found a winning formula but the introduction of Libor Kozak made us a different proposition going forward. The lad clearly needs games to get his sharpness back but merely being able to hold the ball up enables the likes of Ayew and Gil to get into the game.

As for where the team is going, we'll have to see what ins and outs the window brings.

The jury is still out on Garde of course. The football purists amongst the Villa faithful will back him because he clearly wants to play some simple elegant football. The question is whether we can do that in the situation we are in. Some times, more guerrilla like tactics may be called for if we are going to either pull off a miraculous escape, or, more likely, fight our way out of Division Two.

Do Leicester have any famous fans? 
Well there's that jug earred goal hanger off of Match of the Day.

We've got the geezer that writes the Jack Reacher books.

So we win

Who's playing for us?

Carlos, Gabby and Jack are all fit. Wouldn't pick any of 'em at the minute. Best to keep as close to Tuesday's team as possible. It's about time we had a more settled side and the back of a win is an ideal opportunity to stay unchanged.

Who's playing for them?
Vardy may well play though carrying an injury which has curtailed his goal-scoring exploits in the last few weeks.

Any useless stats?
Of course, here you go:

• We have 33 wins over Leicester while they have 41 victories over us. There have been 23 draws.

• Leicester's last league win at Villa Park was in December 2001. Ade Akinbiyi got on the scoresheet in a 2-0 victory.

• Our first ever meeting was an FA Cup tie in 1905. We won the first round encounter 5-1 thanks to two goals from Joe Bache and one a piece from Albert Hall, Ale Leake and Harry Hampton.

Prediction
Going for a 2-3 Leicester win.