Villa Build Up Thread

Well the last 3 I've started we've won.

Another win for me and clean sheet against a struggling team. Same team and a 1-0 stressful game with another Shane Long sub winner.

Fixtures have been perfect for us. A win or even a draw would set us up perfectly for 3 massive games.

Also the build up on MNF will be interesting to see how they analyse us.

Come on you Reds!!!!!!!

On paper, this should be an Saints win but Villa do have one or two players that can cause problems. Fortunately one of them is suspended. I want to say I'd take a draw but this season? Sod it, I'm going for a 2-0 Saints win.

Davis and Mané picked up knocks against Leicester. I hope 2 weeks is enough that they recover.

Bugger off Wiggles, we never win when you start these things

Villa have scored the fewest goals in the PL (5) and we've conceded the fewest (5). Therefore it seems like a decent bet that they won't score. And I would guess that we will sneak at least 1.

0-1 (Saints win) for me!

Villa have scored the fewest goals in the PL (5) and we've conceded the fewest (5). Therefore it seems like a decent bet that they won't score. And I would guess that we will sneak at least 1.

 

0-1 (Saints win) for me!

And with there best player suspended you've gotta say......

Just hope we have no injuries during the internationals. The only thing I'm genuinely worried about for this game. And two weeks is a long break, plenty of time for other teams to sort themselves out. Villa won't have so many internationals out so should be able to prepare a bit better for this than we can. I really hope we win this. To keep the confidence high for our home game against City more than anything.

In Koeman we trust.

Hope we get all our players back from international duty, fit and with no injuries.

We need to get three points from this on to cushion us from a potential lean spell. Then we can push on after Christmas to secure our premier league status.

I will contribute more to this post once I know our 17 x Internationals have returned safely! This will be a tricky game away from home on a cold Monday evening on TV but with our momentum I think we can nick a win by a goal.

Earlier in the season I might have accepted a point from games likes Swansea, Hull etc away.. but this season - we have no reason to be fearful.

Villa have scored the fewest goals in the PL (5) and we've conceded the fewest (5).

Predict we will win 7-5

Bit of a cliche Trousers, you could say any game against a team below us is a banana skin. A bit disrespectful to Villa too I think, we shouldn't just go there and expect to win despite recent form. Don't forget we only took a point off them last year, although how they won that game at St Mary's I'll never know.

Wont be an easy game and a point wouldn't be a disaster. A win would set us up brilliantly for our tough run of fixtures though and we have to be favourites.

I wouldn't change the team from the Leicester game but with 17 international players departing we need to hope there are no injuries.

Bit of a cliche Trousers, you could say any game against a team below us is a banana skin. A bit disrespectful to Villa too I think, we shouldn't just go there and expect to win despite recent form.

Note to self: remember to include little winky face when posting with tongue firmly planted in cheek...

As evidenced by their stubborn resistance against w.ham don't think it is straightforward. Glad benteke is absent though.

We're due a win.

This game being on the Monday is quite handy because our players away on international duty will get extra time to recover. This is especially true of Mane who has 2 games to play and the furthest to travel other than Yoshida.

We're due a win.

This.

Any news on Davis' injury? And is Morgan suspended or still on 4 yellows?

Last year Villa didn't create much at Villa Pk. We weren't at our best either at that stage of the season and it ended 0-0. We're a better more creative team now than we were then so it's a Saints win for me.

1-0 Saints.

The pressures almost off on this one. No matter what happens in the 9 matches playing before us, we'll be in 2nd when we walk on the pitch at villa park.

Southampton have been doing well of late but have struggled for goals since their fortunate 8-0 win against Sunderland. Although they haven't conceded many this is more due to other teams not shooting rather than good defending as you can see from their shots against stats the last few weeks. Villa on the other hand are due a win and have to start scoring sometime.

Dorkish prediction villa 4 southampton 0.

This game being on the Monday is quite handy because our players away on international duty will get extra time to recover. This is especially true of Mane who has 2 games to play and the furthest to travel other than Yoshida.

Good point.

We must have been the team least in TV so far so will be good to show the world how brilliant we've been.

Am I right in think we have only been on TV twice and lost both times?

Southampton have been doing well of late but have struggled for goals since their fortunate 8-0 win against Sunderland. Although they haven't conceded many this is more due to other teams not shooting rather than good defending as you can see from their shots against stats the last few weeks. Villa on the other hand are due a win and have to start scoring sometime.

 

Dorkish prediction villa 4 southampton 0.

And don't forget if they had Pelle's goals instead of us things would be different

And don't forget if they had Pelle's goals instead of us things would be different

Thanks for re-quoting the post by Turkish. He's on my ignore list so it was a rare opportunity to improve my education.

Thanks for re-quoting the post by Turkish. He's on my ignore list so it was a rare opportunity to improve my education.

I don't know how ill ever recover from this devastating news.

Is Morgan suspended?

Thanks for re-quoting the post by Turkish. He's on my ignore list so it was a rare opportunity to improve my education.

I don't know how ill ever recover from this devastating news.

Just so Professor gets the word of your devastation.

Is Morgan suspended?

No.

Is Morgan suspended?

No. He was booked against Liverpool, Swansea, Sunderland and Leicester.

Southampton have been doing well of late but have struggled for goals since their fortunate 8-0 win against Sunderland. Although they haven't conceded many this is more due to other teams not shooting rather than good defending as you can see from their shots against stats the last few weeks. Villa on the other hand are due a win and have to start scoring sometime.

 

Dorkish prediction villa 4 southampton 0.

Many a truth lies in jest.

But I think we'll sneak it, 2-1 Saints.

The only reason I can believe that we lost the home game against Villa last year is the fact that I was there to actually see it. Otherwise I'd still think it was just a nightmare.

Seldom has a team been so comprehensively dominated and won - yet more evidence that it's an "anything can happen" game.

Firstly we need to hope for an injury free international break, hopefully Clyne gets a game v Slovenia but is spared what is bound to be a rough cup tie style match away to Scotland at Celtic Park.

Does anyone know when Ward-Prowse is expected back? Could do with him as an option with Davis being injured and Schneiderlin one booking away from a suspension. Harrison Reed is a good option off the bench.

Most players should be back on Wednesday / Thursday next week so extra couple of days preparation will help us.

Villa have scored the fewest goals in the PL (5) and we've conceded the fewest (5). Therefore it seems like a decent bet that they won't score. And I would guess that we will sneak at least 1.

 

0-1 (Saints win) for me!

And we know how these scenarios often pan out, plus it has te added curse of being on Sky.

However, that was back in the day when we were mere mortals, now we are Super Heroes on a Divine Mission to break into the Elite Top 4 membership!!

I think Koeman will have the lads right up for this. If we win this one, then when we play City - even if we lose they couldn't go above us, so that will give the team an added incentive not to slip up here. Villa haven't been playing well, and IIRC Benteke will still be suspended by the time we go to them, which is a nice little bonus. They will be at home, so expected to come out and attack us, which should leave some space in and around their less than in form defence.

Pelle said after Millwall that he never likes going three games without scoring, and he didn't bag against Hull or Leicester so I fancy him to get one here and us to bag a 1-0 win.

As evidenced by their stubborn resistance against w.ham don't think it is straightforward. Glad benteke is absent though.

You would expect Villa to be more attack minded at home, so expect Paul Lambert to start with just the one attacker!

Quite surprised at the conservative scoreline predictions here, though I guess that just becomes habit after supporting Saints through the bad times as well as the good. If we're seriously targeting European football next season this is the kind of game we should be winning. Provided there are no high-profile injuries from the internationals (I imagine Clyne and Forster will be fine sitting on the bench), we should win by at least 0-2.

5-0 Saints. Pelle hat-trick, Tadic and Schneiderlin. Live on TV, chance to show the world what we're about over 90 minutes and not just what they see on MOTD. These 1-0 and 2-0's aren't doing us justice, we are fantastic to watch, and thats exactly what everyone will be saying after this game.

Note to self: remember to include little winky face when posting with tongue firmly planted in cheek...

 

I won't be happy until you've told us it has a 0-0 written all over it.

I think we need a 0-0 draw for us to slip under the radar again. Then operation "top 4 surprise" can continue as planned again.

The toughest games have been when teams come and park the bus, like Leicester. It's often then been a long, stressful wait for a goal. But happy clapper is right that this should not be the case for Villa at home. Even if we go in as favorites, they will be cheered on to attack. If we can continue our amazing feat of shutting teams down in midfield before they even have a chance to shoot, we should find ourselves often with the ball in space. I think we'll get a first half goal thanks to a devastating through ball from Tadic or Wanyama, and then ramp it up to 3-0 by the end.

But this is a game of luck. Some of our clean sheets could easily have contained goals against. There have been bizarre misses, woodwork hit, etc. At some point we will have a game where we play brilliantly and lose. But I think we'll take this one.

Quite surprised at the conservative scoreline predictions here

I predicted 7-5. Is that conservative? If so I'll go for 7-6 instead :-)

Forster: Clyne Fonte Toby Bertrand; Morgan Wanyama Davis; Tadic Pelle Long

Mane off the bench, Cork instead of Davis if he is injured.

Pelle said after Millwall that he never likes going three games without scoring, and he didn't bag against Hull or Leicester so I fancy him to get one here and us to bag a 1-0 win.

Nah, he'll get a couple of hatricks with Italy and will float through the Villa game in a post coital haze .

If we can get an early goal we will be fine

The pressures almost off on this one. No matter what happens in the 9 matches playing before us, we'll be in 2nd when we walk on the pitch at villa park.

Wouldn't it just be amazing to know going into this game that a win could take us 7 points clear of third...

The pressures almost off on this one. No matter what happens in the 9 matches playing before us, we'll be in 2nd when we walk on the pitch at villa park.

Why is the pressure off?

Villa could be in the bottom 3 by the time we play them. They'll be scrapping for their lives. Nobody wants to be in the zone, even at this early stage of the season.

Villa could be in the bottom 3 by the time we play them. They'll be scrapping for their lives. Nobody wants to be in the zone, even at this early stage of the season.

I don't like this apprehension of poor teams 'scrapping for their lives'. They're down there because they're not very good. Sure, they'll be busting a gut when it comes to the end of the season and they literally can't stay up without the points but it's nothing to be concerned with at this stage.

Wouldn't it just be amazing to know going into this game that a win could take us 7 points clear of third...

We could be going in to the game knowing that a win would give us the same points as Liverpool and Spurs. Combined.

If we can get an early goal we will be fine

And if we can't ... we'll just have to hang in there. We keep (another) clean sheet and we take a minimum of one point. This is a bit of a Stoke away (first half!) for me, very aggressive when we have the ball, hit hard in numbers when we can, be patient when we can't. 0-1 or 0-2 will do just fine, 0-0 or 1-1 not the end of the world, we follow this with a very winnnable game against Citeh, anywhere between 2 and 6 points from those two will be great.

Senderos has picked up yet another injury on international duty.

Out of the international games, and a doubt for the game against us.