Match Preview: Aston Villa v Stoke City

By: Chris | February 28th, 2009

Aston Villa v Stoke City
Premier League
Villa Park
Sunday 1st March 2009, 3.00pm

Given the moaning of a section of Villa supporters – even booing Martin O’Neill in Moscow – perhaps they’d like to offer the more switched-on Villa fans their tickets for any Champions League games we may get to play next year. Yes, some flew to Moscow, but that’s not a licence to act like utter dirt. Scum. With that in mind, they presumably don’t understand the importance of tomorrow’s game against Stoke City

Premier League Form Guide

Aston Villa: WWWDWL

Villa sit in fourth, six points ahead of Arsenal, thanks to a stunning run of (occasionally fortunate) form over the winter. But last weekend we fell to our first defeat in the league since early November. Chelsea’s 1-0 win was as much down to new manager syndrome as to the Blues’ disgraceful time-wasting and Mark Halsey’s appalling refereeing. I still regard our form as good, but we must beat Stoke tomorrow for it to get back on track.

Stoke City: DLLWLD

Stoke are in a precarious position, one spot outside the drop zone, just three points from the bottom and only two ahead of Blackburn and Middlesbrough. Depending on West Bromwich Albion’s result against Everton (currently 1-0 to the Toffees), that situation could be worse by the time the three o’clocks kick off this afternoon. A magnificent win over Manchester City was a bright spot, but defeats to Spurs, Chelsea and Sunderland did some damage. The last six games were rounded out by draws at Liverpool and at home to Portsmouth.

Team News

Villa are back up to a decent level of strength, and will put out the strongest possible team after resting seven or eight in Moscow. Carlos Cuellar and Nigel Reo-Coker are back up to speed, and John Carew should be fit after missing out against CSKA. Brad Friedel, Gareth Barry, Ashley Young, James Milner, Stan Petrov, Gabriel Agbonlahor and Emile Heskey will all start.

For Stoke, Rory Delap and Matthew Etherington are suspended. Ricardo Fuller has been out injured, but it looks like he might make a return. Former Villa target James Beattie will play, and he’s on fine form.

Why Stoke at home is a must-win

Firstly, it should go some way to shutting up all the moaning wankers. But it’s also true to say that O’Neill’s decision this week was down to the absolute necessity to win more games than not between now and the rest of the season. The Champions League is a must.

I’m going to go slightly against the grain and say that I’ve enjoyed Stoke’s presence in the Premier League this season. But it’d be nice to get a drop of revenge too, after they beat us in August.

Betting