Birmingham City will visit Villa Park for a lunch-time derby against Aston Villa, on Sunday, in match week 10 of the Premier League.
Aston Villa have dominated matches between these sides, recently, and have won six in a row. Birmingham will seek to end that streak in Sunday's derby against the Villans. And the Blues will look to Liam Ridgewell to provide the spark against his former club. Birmingham will also look to their big striker Hikola Zigic to stand up to be counted. Zigic, alongwith Ridewell, was one of the goal scorers in the 2-0 win over Blackpool last week.
SEASON 3 PREMIERE
Villa are coming off a 1-0 loss suffered against Sunderland at the Stadium of Light last week, and they will seek atonement against the Blues. Houllier will be keen to stamp his personality on the fortunes of the squad that is still emerging from Martin O'Neill's shadow.
Last season Birmngham finished ninth on the league table, and they haven't yet lived up to that promise, this season. This could be because of tactiacl errors by team manger McLeish. Equally, the Blues haven't been helped by the fact that summer signings like Hleb and Zigic are yet to gel with the team.
Birmingham are pre-dominantly defensive and Villa will have their task cut out in trying to break down City's back-line, where Scott Dann and Roger Johnson have shone in tandem; goalkeeper Foster has also played his part..
That said, full-backs Stephen Carr and Liam Ridgewell will need to stay busy to stave off flank attacks by Villa's Ashley Young and Stewart Downing.
Perhaps the biggest threat to the Blues' goal will come from old warhorse Heskey, who has already netted four times for Houllier's squad this season.
Ahead of Sunday's game, three Villa players are on the injury list. They are Agbonlahor, L Young and Delph. City have their own injury worries with McFadden and Beausejour sidelined. Those apart, Gardner is serving a one-match suspension after receiving a second yellow card in the last match.
Aston Villa fielded the following eleven players in their game against Sunderland in match week nine: Friedel, Beye, Collins, Dunne, Warnock, Downing, Reo-Coker, Petrov, Young, Ireland, Heskey.
The substitutes were: Albrighton, Clark, Guzan, Bannan, Sidwell, Carew, Cuellar.
The following players were in the starting eleven for Birmingham in their game with Blackpool: Foster, Carr, Johnson, Dann, Ridgewell, Larsson, Ferguson, Hleb, Fahey, O'Connor, Zigic.
The substitutes were: Derbyshire, Murphy, Michel, Taylor, Phillips, Bowyer, Jiranek.
Premier League Match Time: Aston Villa Vs Birmingham SEASON 3 PREMIERE
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