Aston Villa host Newcastle in a must-win game for Gerard Houllier's beleaguered team. Fortunately for the Villans, they're finally back up to something approaching full strength after spending most of the season with half of their first team injury - and hovering near the relegation zone as a result. Houllier is therefore able to show us what he'd be able to do when not forced to start ten year old little girls in his defensive line, so we'll for the first time in a long while see the real Aston Villa.
We may not see the real Newcastle, however. Captain Kevin Nolan is suspended and there are several major long-term absences from Alan Pardew's lineup. However, they did do a more than thorough job of slaughtering Wolves last time out, so they could well be capable of compounding Villa's woes today.
Aston Villa (4-4-1-1): Brad Friedel; Luke Young, Richard Dunne, James Collins, Kyle Walker; Gabriel Agbonlahor, Stiliyan Petrov, Jean Makoun, Stewart Downing; Ashley Young; Darren Bent.
Substitutes: Andy Marshall, Robert Pires, Marc Albrighton, Emile Heskey, Nigel Reo-Coker, Ciaran Clark, Carlos Cuellar.
Newcastle (4-4-2): Steve Harper; Danny Simpson, Steven Taylor, Mike Williamson, Jose Enrique; Joey Barton, Danny Guthrie, Fabricio Coloccini, Jonas Gutierrez; Nile Ranger, Peter Lovenkrands.
Substitutes: Tim Krul, Ryan Taylor, Shane Ferguson, Ryan Donaldson, James Tavernier, Michael Richardson, Shefki Kuqi.
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