On Tuesday night, after Charlie Austin had netted the 3rd QPR goal it felt like we were down. We would be in the relegation zone having played a game more than everyone else. However, a certain Belgian striker had other ideas and perfectly placed a free kick right into the corner in the dying minutes to give us hope. What Tuesday proved to us, is that if we are going to stay up it will be down to Christian Benteke and his goals. Since he scored that penalty to win the derby against West Brom, his run of form has resembled that at the backend of his first season where his goals fired us to safety. But that’s not to say it was only Benteke with his hat trick who put in a good performance on Tuesday, Agbonlahor provided a superb assist for Benteke’s second whilst Grealish on his first Premier League start at the tip of the diamond behind the strikers was a livewire throughout and proved to be a good selection by Sherwood.
However, on Saturday will travel down south to Sherwood’s former stomping ground White Hart Lane to take on Tottenham Hotspur. Last weeks draw away at Burnley really dampened any hopes of top 4 for Spurs as Manchester United and Arsenal further pulled away from the chasing pack. However, Tottenham under Mauricio Pottechino have faired well this season, runners up in the Capital One Cup and in the Europa League spots in the League. But that has been the main talking points of their season, Harry Kane has. The English striker, of whom Sherwood gave him his first run in the Tottenham side at the back end of last season has blossomed this season. After breaking through into the Tottenham league side earlier this season after scoring bucket loads in the Europa League, he has really held is own in the league and has even made his England debut. His 29 goals in all competitions this season for Tottenham show just how good he has been. But to pretend he is the only Tottenham threat is wrong, Eriksen, Townsend, Lamela and Chadli are all capable of producing assists and goals at crucial moments and even in Towsnend’s case the occasional wonder goal. The team news for Tottenham this weekend is that number 1 goalkeeper Hugo Lloris is still ruled out with Michel Vorm deputising, Kyle Walker will also miss the game after picking up an injury in last week’s draw at Burnley and Jan Verthongen the Belgian defender is doubtful due to illness which ruled him out of their previous game.
Now onto Villa and the draw against QPR you could say gave us a valuable point, but could also be seen as 2 points dropped against a relegation rival. If there was one good thing to come out of Tuesday’s game was the fact Benteke scored a hat trick and showed us the talent we all know he possess. Benteke’s goals will be crucial to us staying up this year and to see him banging them in consistently is a sight all Villa fans relish and make all our rivals worry. As Sherwood heads back to North London on Saturday, he will know his team could well be in the relegation zone by the end of the weekend and because we will not be playing for 2 weeks in the league after due to our FA Cup Semi Final it means that we could be further into the relegation zone by the time we next play. Tactics are going to play a huge part this weekend, does he go with the same team that played on Tuesday and keep Grealish behind the strikers and go all out for the win, or does he go more conservative with 3 central midfielders with 2 wingers. As evidenced by Sherwood’s reign so far, it is likely we will go for the first option especially as 2 of the first choice back four are missing and Hugo Lloris is out. But if we stick with the same formation, there is more than likely to be changes to the back four after 3 poor goals were conceded to QPR on Tuesday. Kieran Richardson’s place in the team is under threat with the return of Aly Cissokho to training and Jores Okore might also return with Ciaran Clark and Ron Vlaar not having put in the most convincing performance last time out. Matt Lowton also might return to the team in place of Leandro Bacuna.
The injury news for Villa however is less positive. Sinclair, Westwood and Hutton are all likely to be ruled out due to injury, whilst Carlos Gil picked up an injury during a U-21 game during the week and is a doubt and whilst big Czech forward Libor Kozak also returned in the same game, Sherwood has said he does not want to rush him back considering he has been out for 14 months.
It’s getting towards the business end of the season and Villa need to pick up points to haul themselves away from the relegation dogfight, can Benteke’s goal help down Spurs or will the firepower of Harry Kane be too much for our defence to cope with?
