Another stupid kick off time means it has to be another Villa game.
I think the headline sums this one up pretty well actually.
I don’t mean I don’t have a clue in general (although some might think that), but it’s more that we’re capable of any result possible and we’re already showing major inconsistency.
My points prediction for the games up to christmas have already gone out of the window, after all.
We’re just so hard to predict aren’t we?
Look at the teams we’ve beaten and then the teams we’ve lost to and you’d pretty much say that it’s 100% the opposite of what you’d expect.
Add in the fact that we’ve lost three games at home and won three games away already and well, what chance have you got?
I think I’ve given up with predictions for a while and anything now will be more based on hope.
Squad news and Guilbert and Hause are both training, but won’t be ready.
Keinan Davis is apparently fit, so will almost certainly make the bench, but it’s doubtful he’ll start, although questions have been asked about Smith going with two up front. I just don’t see it.
I’ve just seens a report that Traore is doubtful, but I’m not seeing anything to back that up.
The main news(?) is that Ross Barkley is out and the question is who comes in to replace him?
The clever money says it’ll be Conor Hourihane, but it was interesting that Dean Smith preferred Traore over him when Barkley went off last week.
It makes you wonder how much the manager rates the Irishman, but there’s no other logical starter.
Lansbury was notable for his absence when the Mail did a training ground article and there may have been a simple explanation for that, but I don’t think he’d be in the frame anyway.
Our squad is horrendously thin isn’t it? and the question will inevitably be will we be entering the market for reinforcements in the window? but that’s for another day.
As for the Hammers, Michail Antonio could return tonight having missed three matches due to a hamstring problem.
Andriy Yarmolenko has been in self-isolation because of a positive Covid-19 test and it’s not known if he’ll be ready.
They’re fully fit otherwise.
So no predictions based on logic then and it’s purely heart-based.
Where, even so, I’ve got us to lose this one, 0-1.
Well, I might as well. Everytime I say draw or win, I invariably get it wrong.
UTV!
