Aston Villa - v - Leeds United ***Matchday Thread***

[BelfastAndy]

TEAM NEWS

Bertrand Traore is unlikely to be involved for Aston Villa, having only concluded his Africa Cup of Nations campaign with Burkina Faso on Saturday.

Leon Bailey is back in full training but won't be risked, while Trezeguet has joined Istanbul Basaksehir on loan.

Leeds quartet Jamie Shackleton, Adam Forshaw, Crysencio Summerville and Charlie Cresswell are all fit again.

Junior Firpo should be available this weekend, while Liam Cooper and Kalvin Phillips are also close to a return.

Patrick Bamford remains on the sidelines for an unknown period of time because of a foot injury.

MATCH FACTS

Head-to-head

Aston Villa have won only three of the past 15 league meetings (D6, L6).

Leeds, who triumphed 3-0 at Villa Park last season, can earn three consecutive away league wins against Villa for the first time.

Aston Villa

They have taken 16 points from 10 league matches under Steven Gerrard (W5, D1, L4).

However, only the three promoted sides have lost more games this season than the 11 by Villa.

Aston Villa are one of three teams to have scored in all of their Premier League home fixtures this season, alongside Liverpool and West Ham.

Philippe Coutinho can become the first player to score in both of his first two Villa Premier League home appearances since Carlton Cole in August 2004.

Leeds United

This is Leeds' 4,000th league match. The last four teams to reach this milestone as a Premier League side have lost their 4000th game.

They have lost four of their past six Premier League games.

Leeds are vying to win consecutive league away fixtures for the first time this season.

The Whites have only conceded once in open play in three Premier League games in 2022.

Marcelo Bielsa's side have conceded 20 goals in their last seven league matches, as many as in their first 14 of the season.

Raphinha has been directly involved in 25 goals in 49 Premier League appearances, scoring 14 goals and setting up 11.

1 - 3.

MOT.

[UbiqueLUFC33]

Jesus H Christ with bells on - James is once again our 'target man up front' with Gelhardt warming the bench. How many chances will we create tonight only to see them wasted by a cutting edge so blunt it could barely slice a ripe tomato. I suppose Rodrigo the Spanish International centre forward may play up top but, statistically, he has been very average (apart from 2 good games at the back end of last season).

[BelfastAndy]

Feck

[ozleeds]

lol

[ozleeds]

Good start Norwich 2 min in 1 nil up

[hopelesslyoptimistic]

Midfield likely to have gaping holes in it with the side he”s picked when we defend.

Hope Forshaw is fit enough to come on at half time.

[ozleeds]

Nice first attack now lets hold on and get another on the break

[spaldy]

One last observation from the pub. One of the patrons observed that the ref really was really poor. Pretty much left Meslier unprotected the entire game. Quite a few other marginal calls and no calls. I should note this guy was wearing a scum kit lest anyone think he was a partial viewer.

I believe his comment at the final whistle is that he thought he'd likely see the ref go over and fellate garrard.

Garrards a sneaky little vermin. It's pretty obvious he told his team to play dirty and go for the player every time. He obviously knew the ref was a spineless wimp.

[spaldy]

Oz,

it's worth watching the game replay if you get a chance. great game.

watch it and then report how honest and good he is. Pay special attention to the no calls. while I'm certainly no fan of a whistle happy control freak running a game I also understand when a team is playing the body versus challenging for the ball. No calls, in essence, become a partial bias.

Of course, credit to Garrard to have his playing physically push us around and taking it to the next level when the ref didn't call anything. Not really MB"s style to tell his players to play goon ball and our small sized squad as well a very undersized line up don't work well for us. The last 15 minutes could have been 2-3 reds and he lost control of a great game.

[Billyni]

One last observation from the pub. One of the patrons observed that the ref really was really poor. Pretty much left Meslier unprotected the entire game. Quite a few other marginal calls and no calls. I should note this guy was wearing a scum kit lest anyone think he was a partial viewer.

I believe his comment at the final whistle is that he thought he'd likely see the ref go over and fellate garrard.

Garrards a sneaky little vermin. It's pretty obvious he told his team to play dirty and go for the player every time. He obviously knew the ref was a spineless wimp.

I actually thought the ref was ok. Couldn’t be described as a homer anyway.
But your right about Gerrard. Sneaky little fcuker. Just ask his wife.