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.
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| Bingo caller at TV-am |
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.
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.
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.
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