Revenge mission for Villa

We know, as we prepare for our trip to Villa Park, that we face a Premiership club who won’t be experimenting with kids, who won’t be playing their reserve team but will start with an eleven very close to that which lost to Wigan on Saturday.

They are a club under some pressure, and are in need of a good cup run. There’s talk of takeovers and currently manager David O’Leary is under some pressure with George Burley’s name having been placed in the frame over the past few days.

O’Leary looks fairly safe for now. Chairman ‘Deadly’ Doug Ellis said only last week that the manager would remain at Villa for as long as he remained chairman, but they are currently looking for an offer for the club.

Only two players, Michael Duff and John McGreal, from last season’s game will be in the Burnley side tonight and there are players from that game who are no longer at Villa. Nobby Solano is back at Newcastle, Carlton Cole has returned to Chelsea and Pete Whittingham, who had such a poor spell on loan at Burnley last season, is currently on a similar deal at Derby.

Thomas Hitzlsperger came on as a sub a year ago and he’s no longer with the club, he signed for Vfb Stuttgart in the summer, whilst other departures have included Darius Vassell and Stefan Moore.

O’Leary was noted for his activity in the transfer market at Leeds and in the last year has made a total of nine signings, some of them will certainly be in the side tonight. Eric Djemba-Djemba arrived from Manchester United in January, the rest of them came in during the summer and beyond.

Aaron Hughes was the first summer signing, the defender costing a million from Newcastle and he was soon joined by young Arsenal goalkeeper Stuart Taylor and Kevin Phillips the former Sunderland goal scorer who cost another million from relegated Southampton. Czech midfielder Patrik Berger was the last pre-season signing, the former Liverpool player moving to Villa Park from Portsmouth.

The Villa manager was busy as the transfer window started to close. £6.5 million was spent bringing in a second Czech, this time striker Milan Baros from Liverpool. That was a week before the window closed but in the last 24 hours there were three more signings.

The first was defender Wilfred Bouma from PSV Eindhoven and on the last day in August O’Leary added two loan signings. The first of them was Eirik Bakke from Leeds and at the end of the day James Milner came in from Newcastle as part of the deal that saw Solano return to the north east.

All these changes in the squad have hardly brought great success and they are currently just three points above the relegation zone. They have won just two league games all season, both 1-0. A Milan Baros goal earned them all three points at home against Blackburn whilst just over a week ago they beat rivals Birmingham for the first time in 18 years with a goal from Kevin Phillips.

They arrive at tonight’s game after a sensational win in the last round, just as it looked as though they could be going out at the first hurdle, away to League Two club Wycombe Wanderers. A first half goal from Steve Davis looked hardly enough as they trailed 3-1 at the interval but things certainly changed during a dramatic second half.

They pulled one back within three minutes of the restart but still trailed with just over twenty minutes to go. By the time the clock was showing 78 minutes gone they had gone 6-3 in front, with four goals in nine minutes, and they added two more in the closing minutes to record an 8-3 victory. I suspect, I certainly hope, we defend a little bit better than Wycombe did.

O’Leary has said Villa need this cup run, mind you he said the same a year ago so who knows, lightening might just strike twice.

Click HERE to see all Villa’s results this season.

The Burnley fans hopes that Gary Cahill would play were dashed when Villa revealed last week that the central defender had been ruled out for four months following an operation on his ankle. It is doubtful whether he would have played in any case with David O’Leary looking set to field as strong a side as possible.

He’s hinted that there will be no changes unless enforced from the side that lost to Wigan but there will be at least one change with Aaron Hughes ruled out after a recurrence of his hernia problem. It was Hughes’ first game back after surgery.

That leaves the way for Mark Delaney to return to the side. The Welsh defender hasn’t played this season for his club because of a knee injury although he was on the bench on Saturday. Also set for a return to the squad are England international midfielder Gavin McCann, he’s been out of the side for over six weeks, and defender Wilfred Bouma. Both will probably be on the bench.

If O’Leary is true to his word then we can expect them to line up: Thomas Sorensen, Mark Delaney, Olof Mellberg, Liam Ridgewell, Jlloyd Samuel, James Milner, Steve Davis, Eirik Bakke, Gareth Barry, Kevin Phillips, Luke Moore. Subs from: Stuart Taylor, Wilfred Bouma, Gavin McCann, Eric Djemba-Djemba, Patrik Berger, Juan Pablo Angel.

Click HERE to see Aston Villa’s full squad.

Steve Cotterill hasn’t too many players to experiment with but there have been suggestions that he could rest one or two players for this game. He’ll certainly have to make do without Micah Hyde who serves a one match ban after collecting his fifth yellow card at Leicester last Tuesday.

There is a strong possibility that youth players Mark Crossley and Marc Pugh could be on the bench but overall I think Steve is likely to stick to the side that lost at Palace, apart from having to replace Micah.

He won’t be able to include Graham Branch, he’s out again with the injury he sustained against Leeds and I suspect the most likely option, if he wants to continue with five in midfield, is to bring in Chris McCann.

The team could be: Brian Jensen, Michael Duff, Frank Sinclair, John McGreal, Jon Harley, Wade Elliott, James O’Connor, John Spicer, Garreth O’Connor, Chris McCann, Ade Akinbiyi. Subs from: Mark Crossley, Duane Courtney, Keith Lowe, Marc Pugh, Danny Karbassiyoon, Gifton Noel-Williams, Kyle Lafferty.

Just a year ago and one of those special Turf Moor nights we’ve begun to get used to in the last three years or so, the downfall of a Premiership club in one of the two cup competitions. Spurs, Fulham and Liverpool have all gone the same way and the 3-1 win over Villa was comprehensive and fully deserved, not bad for a side that was hit by injuries and had three right backs in the starting line up.

We led with an early goal from Graham Branch, a header from a superb Robbie Blake cross and it was still 1-0 at half time, but the second half had us on the edge of our seats. We needed a second goal and thought we’d got it when we won a penalty, but Robbie’s spot kick was saved by Sorensen.

There was no chance for doubts to set in though and we did finally double the lead through the most unlikely of sources, left back Mo Camara with his only Burnley goal during his two years at the club.

Angel pulled one back with a great header but Jean-Louis Valois, with his first Burnley goal, hammered one in from the right hand side to end any hope of a Villa come back. Another night like that would be fantastic.

The teams were,

Burnley: Danny Coyne, Lee Roche, Michael Duff, John McGreal, Mo Camara, Richard Duffy, Micah Hyde, Tony Grant, Graham Branch, Jean-Louis Valois, Robbie Blake. Subs not used: Brian Jensen, Amadou Sanokho, Matt O’Neill, Joel Pilkington, Paul Scott.

Aston Villa: Thomas Sorensen, Mark Delaney, Olof Mellberg, Liam Ridgewell, Jlloyd Samuel (Thomas HItzlsperger 61), Lee Hendrie, Gavin McCann, Norberto Solano (Luke Moore 72), Pete Whittingham, Juan Pablo Angel, Carlton Cole. Subs not used: Stefan Postma, Ulises de la Cruz, Steve Davis.