I’m getting a bit bored of saying it, to be honest, but it is, isn’t it?
You can’t count your chickens, certainly not this early, but Norwich are beginning to look out of it to me.
Otherwise, it’s still really tight at the bottom and our once superior goal difference is practically neck and neck with the other teams around us.
We can score goals; that’s not a problem, but we concede far too many too. Even if you take out the Man City spanking we’ve still conceded the second highest in the league and it’s that which might be our undoing if we’re not very careful.
Squad news and little has changed. Borja was signed too late to be able to play in this one and I don’t think it makes much difference anyway as he’d be nowhere near the first team.
He seems a very strange signing to me and I’d rather have Rushian Hepburn-Murphy as backup, but I suppose it’s about him getting games and he’d have been unlikely to do that for us.
The good news is that Reina has got over his calf strain and will surely start, as much as Nyland did well against Leicester.
Samatta will no doubt start, although Dean Smith said he tired midweek, so we’ll probably see Davis come on too.
The other question is about Danny Drinkwater and will he start?
I’m guessing he will.
As for Bournemouth, they expect Jefferson Lerma and Diego Rico to be available, but it’s too early for Junior Stanislas, Jack Stacey and Joshua King.
So how do I see the game going?
Well, I definitely think we’re good enough to beat them on our day, but I’ve said many times that the way we play isn’t at all convincing and it worries me.
Even though we beat Leicester, our defence was atrocious again, but we’ve demonstrated that we can drag results from games where we look inferior. That’s a massive plus for a side in our position and it wouldn’t surprise me if our doggedness comes into play today.
I don’t see many goals because it’s going to be too cagey, I reckon, but I’m hoping we have enough to get the points.
A win would be massive, as it opens a gap on Bournemouth, but conversely, they’d go above us if they win.
So basically, its a “must win” and I think we will.
Villa 1-0.
I hope!
COYL!