Aston Villa travel to the Britannia Stadium this Saturday to face Stoke City. Stoke have enjoyed good home from yet again this season, having most recently beaten Chelsea at the Britannia. Aston Villa may have poor form home, but are a much better side away. Playing on the counter has helped Aston Villa beat the likes of Arsenal, Southampton and Norwich so far this season.
However a common result for both teams have been ties, in total Aston Villa and Stoke have managed a total of 10 draws between them. A very possible result for tomorrows game.
Team News:
Stoke maybe without defender Ryan Shawcross who limped off with a groin injury against Man. Utd in the League Cup last Wednesday. On-loan, Stephen Ireland is ineligible to play against his parent club.
Aston Villa welcome back Delph from suspension with but will be without Gabriel Agbonlahor as he faces a one-match ban. Chris Herd is back following a facial injury and Ron Vlaar remains a long-term casualty.
Match Facts:
Stoke City have lost just one of their last seven Barclays Premier League matches (W2 D4 L1)
Christian Benteke has now gone 11 hours and 59 minutes without scoring a Barclays Premier League goal.
Aston Villa have conceded more handballs than any other Premier League team this season (15).
Only four teams (Arsenal, Tottenham, Man Utd and Everton) have won more away points than Aston Villa (12) this season.
No team has been awarded more penalties than Aston Villa (3) this season.
Since they arrived in the Premier League in 2008, Stoke have taken 2507 long throws, 1271 more than any other side.
Predicted Lineups
Begovic
Cameron-Huth-Wilson-Pietres
N’Zonzi-Whelan
Assaidi-Adam-Arnatovic
Crouch
Kozak-Benteke
Bacuna-Delph-Westwood-Albrighton
Luna-Herd-Clark-Lowton
Guzan
Match Prediction:
Stoke 0-0 Aston Villa
Both teams can’t score, it’s as simple as that. Alright, that’s a little harsh on Stoke, they did beat Chelsea 3-2. But it will be a tough game for both sides. Aston Villa will play on the counter and a good result will very much depend on our defence. If the defence can keep a clean sheet until half-time, Villa could probably nick it. But if Villa concede early again, it’ll be a similar story to Fulham.
Comments
122 responses to “Stoke Vs Aston Villa – Preview”
So, no yellow on that tackle against Albrighton and no red card on that tackle on Wiemann when he was through on goal. Albrighton has been superb so far, Tonev has not. We’re missing Gabby but Grealish on that left wing would be a very good start.
Are you streaming Foxy ? I’ve tried but failure.
So Clark gets a card for fouling someone who shouldn’t be on the pitch and then they score. Great refereeing.
1down stoke scored
Why is my post not going last?
Here we fucking go.
Well we knew it giddy.
Ffs lamberk out
As well as being shit this referee isn’t in control. I wonder how many players won’t see yellows by the end of the match?
Delf another yellow card, told you at the start of season he will get more than any player Villa has had in past, 6 so far.
Yippeee kozak
Oh no crouch just got one
Hand balled it to control it to and got away with it. Lamberts luck has finally run out
2-1 stoke ffs.
This match is shocking!! Only reason we scored was because it was gifted to us!! The football we are playing this season is utter crap!
I reckon we did alright in the first half. Albrighton was great again, they lucked into having the referee and lines woman on their side (haven’t we fallen foul of her before?) and we’re missing Vlaar and Gabby, and they should have been missing a defender. We are also missing a striker, and have been for 11 matches plus when he was injured, and one who should have been firing them in but hasn’t. So three key players out. On the other hand we only played 10 players with no one on left wing where Gabby would have been. I’ll mention Grealish again. We need Vlaar back as soon as possible and at least Gabby is back for Boxing day. Good goal from Kozak and good to have a striker who actually scores goals when he starts. They had a goal brought down by Crouch’s hand and a goal scored from a free kick from a foul on a player who should have been sent off. Any other day we could have been playing 10 men and won.
A woman shouldn’t be running the line anyway stick to running the line in women’s football IMO . Another politically correct appointment. Anyway that’s an arguement for another day. Bottom line is we lost again!
Lamberks luck is used up he’s had it all season but we are really being found out now. Agree that we miss vlaar. Always seems to be out over Xmas period when we need him the most hmmm
The last couple of seasons Gabby has tended to get injured over a month or two over Christmas. We missed him today, I reckon everyone deserves a chance but Tonev was rubbish. Albrighton is on fire at the moment and is making Tonev look like a complete amateur.
Tonev is awful. In fact I’m struggling to think of any of lamberts signings that are quality. Bentekes gone to pot but vlaar has started looking decent now. His other signings are awful no quality at all.
First half we were average and they were lucky not to have a man sent off but delph should have gone in the 2nd half. We didnt look like scoring today and we were gifted a goal!!! What really got me is when we are chasing a game lambert decides to bring on the great bowery!!! The football this season is utter rubbish and we have gone backwards from the 2nd half of last season. Last season I thought lambert got us playing good passing football and this season its hoofball??,!!! I think I saw a shocking stat that said he has won 15 league games in 45 or sommit??!! I didnt realise it was that bad! Surely that is not good enough for AVFC???!!! Proper fed up of being below average. If we didnt manage to fluckally beat city and southampton we would be in the relegation zone now!!!
Agree Satch those 2 lucky wins have just papered over the cracks.
3 in a row now the only way is downhill what a load of shite say no more im sure theres some clever prick going to tell me the positives bollox.
Lambert will mumble on we were unlucky hand ball by crouch but we go again!! Fuck off lamberk
Sorry. But I can’t watch this team anymore. No poise. No vision. No communication. No threat. And apparently used up all our luck at Southampton. Everyone has an awful first touch. Nobody comes up to help midfield when they get the ball. Basic football. And we can’t even get that right.
So it’s not all bad then lol. Agree Minne appalling worse villa team iv ever seen. Plus Benteke will be of in jan and who can blame him.
It’s not as if Benteke is trying though is it? We haven’t been scoring goals and he’s the main culprit. He can sulk his way out of the starting 11 but any team in the market thinking of buying him needs to look at how he goes on strike to force moves. It looks suspiciously like that’s what’s happening here. I can’t see how Benteke is currently improving the squad. We may as well recall Bent. Oh, no, he seems to have fallen out with the manager, like various other players.
Benteke never wanted to be at villa in the first place. He is deliberately driving down transfer fee IMO so we sell him for 10-15m in jan just to get rid. I say keep him out the team but if he stays watch him come good in last 3 months so he can play his way into World Cup. It’s a joke
I don’t see the point in driving down the transfer fee, clubs like Arsenal, Spurs and so on can afford to pay £25million. I bet Lambert can be more stubborn than Benteke too.
Probably but just because they can afford it dosnt mean they will pay it. Levy is very shrewd he will get Benteke below £20m IMO. Also no benefit for lambert to keep him may as well sell him and get players that want to play for us. Though hopefully pl will be long gone by then
Hah. Yes, that’s the problem. It’s all bad. Sadly, if we had a healthy Vlaar and Okore, we’d be getting more points out of these games. But the technical quality is as bad as I’ve seen (granted I’ve only been following since 98). I’m officially over Lambert.
Agree Minne they can’t string 2 passes together. Vlaar us a bug miss but even if he played it would still have been another 0.0 with us having no idea going fwd.
I think I get the prize told you all 2-1 Stoke, now what do you all say about Lambert its time to go other wise could be to late January, he has no idea on tactical play.
He won’t go bill no way will Lerner sack him not when we are 6 points clear of relegation. He’s unsafe able at the moment we are stuck with the useless twat
If palace beat us then its 3 points ohh ahh lambert has lost the dressing room and the fans hes needs to go
Agree I think he should go anyway he’s put of his league and been given more than enough time IMO
Lambert ” we played well , gave away 2 stupid goals … we play on Thursday – we go again ”
Fuck of lamberk
Ooha i wish that four eyed twat fucked off you were right last season & i was fucking short sighted my appologies its downhill now all the way.come on then wheres the fucking positives folks ok they put their kits & boots on properly AND.FFS
Lol I could see the light ages ago giddy though I wish I was proved wrong in this occasion. Just awful as bad as anything under mcleish.
boooooooo
sack everyone lineswoman sian not on my Christmas list
referee sack
mark hughes sack
crouch hope ur misses gets cheated out of the dancing 2nite hohohoho
roll on nxt week and January sales
Ive not felt this fucked off for ages,is it me or are teams below us getting better bar the mackems im more worried this season than last & we’re 13th.
I don’t care wot u guys say ~ yes iam pissed with the result and crouches handball and referee unable 2 get the basics rite. like last man and stopping goal scoring oppotunately
overall performance wasn’t all bad yes we are lacking a cutting edge but 442 does work 4 me hope the left back gets sorted and bacuna gets a shot b4 shootalot tonov
merry xmas iam gonna open my crate ealier than planned
Another wimperinf loss to a shite team we should be getting 3 points against home or away. I want Lambert out now!
Me too but it won’t happen he will be here for this season at least I’m afraid
We are shit and the football this season is the worst I have seen, I use to watch a Sunday league team and there coach had a better idea about tactics. Time to get shot. WE want our Villa back….
Another great Christmas for Villa unfolding with Lerner and Lam-berk in charge. Disgusting result, disgusting performance but I’m apathetic to it all now. We’re a joke club, with mediocrity pulsing through at every level. We deserve the inevitable relegation coming our way soon (might not be this season but in the next 3 for sure) and then AVFC will rot away thanks to the muppets in charge.
I’ve come to the conclusion that all us fans are now of that same mind we don’t have a clue as to what’s going on with our club, Lambert just has no idea what his next move is, our club been taken over by incompetent so called owner, manager, and inept coaching staff, as one of our posters said we are on the road to being a small club and ending up with just memories. We still have posters that think it will just go away, it won’t, amateur footballers from other countries thinking England’s the place to earn a fortune, and when we have a manager that dreams the way forward it to get eager willing so called players from abroad that cannot fight the fight we don’t stand a chance in being what our fans call for, a football team. I don’t now have the energy to bother with amateur people running Aston Villa, will now think where my hard earned pension goes, bollox to the owner.
I agree football dead its not just lerner that needs to fuck off but all unless owners
The whole ethos of pl coming was to take us up a level after mclown and to play attractive football. IMO I cannot tell the difference between the 2. We might as well have kept AM as we wouldn’t be any worse off than we are now.
Oohah its failed, he’s not going to admit the jobs to big for him, he will just bluff his way until its to late, the mans a buffoon, The whole of the clubs in a dream that’s turned into a nightmare for the fans, that’s not football , we are a laughing stock to football in my opinion, unless he has the bottle to demand we change in mid stream and pay decent wages to willing football’s and get English youth, we will get worse.
Agree bill but all Lerner cares about is staying up. If he can do that on the cheap which is what he us doing then why spend big if that’s your ambition. Lambert will not be sacked I’m afraid unless we fall into bottom 3 then it will be to late.
We don’t actually know what Lerner wants do we? He tried pumping in masses of money, now he’s trying it a different way. Surely we want to keep Lerner but bring in someone who knows how to run the football side of things? And some kind of statement of intent from the owner wouldn’t be a bad thing. I can’t help think – and it shocks me to think this – OOHAH, your point about us being no better than with AM in terms of the enjoyment we get from watching the football is a very good point. We go to watch the football because we want our club to win and play good football. If the team is doing neither it’s a hell of a lot of money we’re throwing away for what?
I still think Lerner is misguided. I don’t think he’s a bad owner. But then who knows what he is and what he’s doing with (lights blue touch paper and runs!) his club. We all shouted about AM and stopped going to matches and Lerner sacked him. I’m not sure we can get rid of Lerner so easily, if we actually wanted to. Having said that we’re the ones who go to matches and watch a team play, so if the Villa continue to lose at home the attendances will drop and it becomes a financial decision. Do we think though that Lambert’s contract contains get out clauses after Lerner had to pay off the last three managers?
So true foxy and at least last season we played more entertaining stuff but it seems like this is a casualty to improve our defence. Seems like lambert can either get defence right or attack right but can’t do both. Also their is no quality in the team at all esp in midfield.
Entertaining football. Like that back heel by Benteke to Wiemann. Last season ended on a high, didn’t it? The players proved they (on the whole) could play and we didn’t do so badly. This season no one seems capable of playing together and yet they’ve all previously shown they can do it. I really don’t think they’re as bad as they currently look (with the exception of Tonev, but will Lambert keep playing him to see whether he comes good?), or specifically as the manager makes them look. They definitely look like 11 individuals and one tactic.
OMG! see lamberts interview on MOTD after the game, its truly laughable because he’s trying to say the usual stuff he says but clearly has no conviction about what he is saying.
that is a man under pressure and a man who has run out of excuses so much he can barely say the words.
if it wasn’t so sad it’d be piss funny.
But we go again lol. Bit like dol were an honest bunch of lads, mon we lost but they are a fine side lol
NM all down to the wind mate (in PL’s alternate universe).
that’s right bws apparently stoke must have had some kind of wind proof magic as it didn’t affect them as much.
gotta say crouchs goal looked like handball all day although it was completely glossed over on motd so I couldn’t really tell.