You wouldn’t normally think Norwich at home is a big game, but with Deano returning to Villa Park for the first time in charge of another club, it is a big day. Never mind that Villa could help seal the Canaries’ relegation and put to rest any such concerns of their own.
Which is also an odd thing to be writing. Villa should be nowhere close to relegation worries, and maybe they’re not, overall. Yet…
I wouldn’t necessarily have thought there’d be a lot riding on this game a few weeks back. But now it kind of looks like there might be. Villa may have actually found themselves with something to play for after all…However unexpectedly.
Not much to say. Marv’s back and on the bench, Ings is back, too, so guessing we’re doing the 4-4-2 again. Usual suspects starting, make of that what you will.
If anyone were to ask what the most significant fixture of this season was, pretty sure a number of us would point to Villa’s collapse in the reverse fixture in October. So, in some ways, sitting a place and 10 points behind Wolves, who blew a 2-0 lead themselves against Leeds to lose 3-2 in their last outing, this match might be some kind of a measuring stick. Might mean nothing.
But with seven left to play and five clubs level or within three points of Villa, the goal of a top-half finish ought to lend some importance to the outcome.
I want Villa to win, whatever there is to play for. And I swear, it has nothing to do with Whinging Arteta. Well, that and some points off the top eight.
