Aston Villa welcome (or not quite) fierce rivals Birmingham City to Villa Park on Sunday afternoon.
Villa are without top goalscorer Jonathan Kodjia, whose 3 game ban for kicking out at a Fulham defender on Monday has been reduced to just the 1 match. To add to this, Neil Taylor is a major doubt for the game as he struggles to recover from a groin strain picked up a few weeks ago.
However, Agbonlahor, who has a prolific record against the Blues, is fit again after a 3 month injury lay-off. Although, it is highly unlikely that he will get much playing time in this one.
Birmingham, who appointed Harry Redknapp as manager during the week after Zola’s resignation, have their own absentee worries, as Tomasz Kuszak is likely to be out after having to subbed off at half-time during Monday’s 2-0 defeat at the hands of Burton. If this is the case, Adam Legzdins will be given his first start in 3 months.
However, it’s not all bad news for the Blues as top scorer Lukas Jutkiewicz managed 90 minutes on Monday after recovering from a hamstring injury, and should be fully fit to play in this one.
When it comes down to previous matches between the two sides, it is safe to say that recent history stands firmly in Villa’s favour – the Blues have not beaten Villa in a league match in their last 9 attempts, with their last victory over Villa coming way back in 2010 in a Carling Cup quarter final.
To add to this, new Birmingham boss Redknapp, in his previous 7 jobs in charge has only won his first league game on one occasion – a 2-0 win against Bolton back in 2008 as Spurs manager.
History gets even worse for the Blues when you consider the fact that the two teams have met 13 times on a Sunday, of which Villa have won the last 6 in a row from October 2005 to April 2010. The Blues have won just 2 of them.
Whereas Villa’s remaining matches will have no impact on their season, Birmingham find themselves just two points above the Relegation Zone and in desperate need of 3 points. Therefore, Villa fans would love nothing more than to compound their rivals’ misery by denying them all 3 points and leaving them hovering perilously over the trap door into League Two.
