Saints At Aston Villa The Preview Monday, 24th Nov 2014 16:22 The in form team of the division travel to the out of form team, there should only be one result, the problem is this Saints. Saints travel to Aston Villa for a live Monday night TV game knowing that a win will set them up nicely for a tough run of fixtures ahead as well as putting us 9 points clear thatn the resurgent Manchester United in fourth. There will be a few questions over selection for Ronald Koeman as for the first time this season injuries start to play a part, at the back it should be business as normal and that will hopefully be the case up front with Pelle, but in the centre of the park you cannot say with any confidence that any of our possibilities for the five positions will be guaranteed a game. Steven Davis is the biggest doubt and looks likely to miss the game with a hamstring injury and although it may have recovered enough for him to resume training he is likely to be rested rather than risked, Dusan Tadic will have hopefully recovered from his injury, but the main worry will be Morgan Schneiderlin. If we assume all bar Davis will be fit then Ronald Koeman has some thinking to do, Wanyama and Schneiderlin would surely start, but then the Dutchman has to look at his options, perhaps his best one would be to play Jack Cork in front of the holding two with Mane and Tadic wide, that is certainly one option but certainly not the only one, such is the versatility of the squad. He could opt for Long instead of Mane out wide or keeping the same holding two, he could play Tadic in the middle and Long and Mane out wide, whichever line up he goes for it is still strong although Davis's work rate will be missed. A straight swap would of course be Cork for Davis, but Koeman could opt to go for the jugular and play Mane & Long. Villa themselves have their injury problems and they are under fire from their own fans, Saints need to go there and keep on top of the game from the start and not give the home side and indeed the home fans a chance to get their heckles up and get a result, make no bones about it Villa will be fighting for this game, they sit only onepoint above the relegation spot at the moment, they know a win will move them up three places but defeat will leave them in big trouble. Their issue though is scoring goals, with only 5 to their name they are the lowest scorers in the Premier League, however they are not shipping goals and their 16 conceded is bettered by only Stoke, Arsenal & Swansea outside of the top five, so Saints will have their work out scoring. The key will be to get an early goal that will but the pressure on Villa, then the longer the game goes on, the more they will have to come out and try to get a goal back, thus leaving themselves open at the back for the counter attack. What we dont want is them to get an early goal or keep it scoreless then we will have to chase the game against a team who can keep it very tight at the back. But Saints are quite capable of getting all three points and if they do then it is a very satisfactory first part of the season completed, putting us in a very good position for a tough winter period. Photo: Action Images Please report offensive, libellous or inappropriate posts by using the links provided.
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