With Aston Villa travelling up to the North East in search of an away win, focus will be on many areas, but in particular on the managers.

Paul Lambert played under former Villa manager Martin O’Neill at Celtic as the combative Scottish midfielder acted as a solid part of their midfield alongside Villa’s captain Stiliyan Petrov.

Today though, there will be little time for sentiment as both clubs have a job to do. Whilst respect will certainly be in place between the respective managers, the need for points for their teams will be the primary driver for success.

Sunderland have been prone to draws this season and also have been relying heavily on the goal scoring of Steven Fletcher, a summer signing from Wolverhampton Wanderers.

As we all know, Villa’s form has been somewhat erratic with their current position sitting far closer to the bottom of the table than the top.

What Next?

Is the Sunderland game winnable? The answer should obviously be yes. Given that Villa’s November is to get increasingly challenging due to three games against top teams this month, a win now would give a cushion that Villa can sit on.

Which isn’t to say that Villa can’t get anything out of the other games, rather that probability dictates that the Sunderland game is more winnable in betting terms than those against the Manchester clubs or Arsenal.

If Villa do win, a little relief will spread across the fans though even that may be short lived given the up and coming fixtures.

If they draw, it may well be seen as an indicator that this campaign is going to be another challenging one following two seasons of the same.

If we lose? Well we won’t do that, will we?

Ladies and gentlemen, it’s time to put our faith in the team and hope we can pull some points out the bag – hopefully three.

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