Match Preview: Aston Villa v Wigan Athletic

By: Chris | January 30th, 2009

Aston Villa v Wigan Athletic
Premier League
Villa Park
Sunday 31st January 2009, 3.00pm

Villa’s win on Tuesday shot us right back into the title race, but the fight for fourth is a more realistic aim. The quest continues at home as former Small Heath boss Steve Bruce brings his bulldog-chewing-a-wasp face and Wigan Athletic side to Villa Park.

Premier League Form Guide

Aston Villa: WDWWWW

Despite not playing particularly well, Villa are showing a handy knack of picking up ground out wins. Since drawing at home to Arsenal, we’ve successfully disposed of Hull City, West Bromwich Albion, Sunderland and Portsmouth. However, none of those wins have been convincing.

Wigan Athletic: WWWLLD

Wigan grabbed three fantastic wins on the bounce in December, beating Blackburn, Newcastle and Newcastle. The form continued with a revenge win over Spurs, but two 1-0 defeats on consecutive trips to Manchester dragged them back into trouble. On Wednesday, a late Mido penalty saw the Latics to a 1-1 draw against Liverpool.

Team News

Villa are still without Martin Laursen (knee), Nigel Reo-Coker (hamstring) Wilfred Bouma (back in training) and Ashley Young (suspended), but welcome back Big John Carew. Carew replaces Marlon Harewood – injured this week – but will miss out to Emile Heskey, who scored a cracking debut goal at Fratton Park on Tuesday. I still haven’t got my voice back properly.

Wigan goalkeeper Chris Kirkland may return after missing out against Liverpool, while Antonio Valencia has already been ruled out. Heskey’s replacement, Mido, also scored on his debut, and will start at Villa Park tomorrow afternoon.

Why Wigan at home is a must-win

Wigan at home is a must win simply because we’re gunning for fourth and we need to stay ahead of Arsenal to achieve our goal. Although our away form is staggeringly good, our home form must improve. Not to mention the fact that we must forever inflict defeat upon Fistface.

Of course, we’ve struggled to beat Wigan at home since their promotion to the Premier League. Time to flush away that particular ghost, I reckon.

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