Another week, another derby. Having put small heath to the sword, Villa come into tonight’s match with West Brom at The Hawthorns after a very interesting, entertaining, and revealing week. A week that’s left us a bit hopeful.
Following the astonishing 5-5 spectacle at Villa Park midweek, it’s off to the Riverside to take on third-place Middlesbrough. Boro are unbeaten in their last five, and have only lost twice all year, and the obvious statistic of interest is 22 goals scored versus 10 conceded. Villa have netted 36 times, by comparison, and conceded 30.
Aitor Karanka has been saying Forest are very different than small heath, so one assumes we’ll see fewer muggings and more football. For me, at the moment, it’s all about Villa playing Villa’s game. Which, admittedly, is still uncharted territory.
So, third game in less than a week, and there’ve been lots of talking points as Dean Smith’s Villa have gone 1-1 since his arrival. It’s been fun stuff. Now we travel to Loftus Road to take on Queens Park Rangers looking to rebound from the 2-1 setback against Norwich.
So here we are, Dean Smith, Swansea, and back to football with absolutely no idea what to expect as Swansea come to visit. No radical departures on the team sheet, other than Tuanzebe starting at CB instead of Jedinak.
