Villa – Leeds; I really hope we win this.

There’s something about Leeds that I really, really don’t like. It’s only a recent thing, as they’ve never even been a threat to us in the vast majority of my time supporting the Villa. Yes, they’ve won trophies and some even more recent than us, but otherwise I’ve always found them to be meh.

Until they got promoted and were then immediately loved by all the media for absolutely no reason that I could see.
I think I just detest media darlings.

It’s quite an interesting game for me, this one as we really have been very similar this season.
We’re four places and four points above the Whites, having both played the same number of games.
Our form over the last six games is similar too. We’ve won two, lost two and drawn one, whereas they’ve won two and lost three.
Hopefully being at home will be to our advantage.

Squad news is not much different for us.
Traore probably won’t be involved because he only finished the ACON on Saturday. It’s doubtful he’d have been involved anyway, in my opinion. He might make the bench as an option, I suppose, because it’s probably too early for Leon Bailey to be involved and he won’t be risked. Trezeguet has joined Istanbul Basaksehir on loan and I don’t think he would have featured either.

As for dirty Leeds, the good news is that cheating striker Patrick Bamford is out because of an ongoing foot injury.
It couldn’t happen to a nicer person.

The stupid break we’ve just had has been kind to Leeds, as Jamie Shackleton, Adam Forshaw, Crysencio Summerville and Charlie Cresswell have all recovered from injuries.
It’s probably a game too soon for Junior Firpo, while Liam Cooper and Kalvin Phillips are also close to a return.

It’s yet another game where I’m not sure what to think.
Leeds don’t score that many goals, which suggests they’re missing cheating Bamford’s contribution. That’s good for us.
But then we struggle to take our chances.

They concede decidedly more than us, but I don’t see many goals in this game.
I’m tempted to say it all depends if we can get off to a flying start and apply the press from the off.
Leeds have superb workrate, as we all know, but I haven’t watched them for a while, so don’t know if they’re suffering any sort of burnout or not.
Our problem is we sometimes struggle to play at a good pace and that crisp, fast passing we saw when Gerrard first arrived is all too often missing.

It all boils down to the fact that I don’t see many goals in this game.

I do however think we should have enough to beat them, given our home advantage.
I’m going for a 1-0 win.
I’m even going to say John McGinn will get the goal.
God knows why; I just have a feeling.

So you can bet that’s wrong then.

UTV!