Aston Villa made it six wins from their last six games when they beat Burton Albion 3-2 last Saturday, but all this will be forgotten by the fans if they fail to make it seven out of seven by beating fierce local rivals Birmingham City on Sunday afternoon.
With the current form of both sides, you would think that it should be quite a comfortable win for Villa at the weekend but, as the well-known cliche states, “the form book goes out the window” during derby matches.
While Villa currently sit just one point outside an automatic promotion place, the Blues are fighting for their lives near the bottom of the table, sitting just four points above the relegation zone.
With Derby having a potentially tricky game against Norwich, this could be the weekend when Villa finally move to second in the table, and let us hope that they keep it should they do.
Here is our predicted Villa XI for Sunday’s match against Birmingham:
GK: Sam Johnstone
Johnstone has been on fire this season and there’s no way he will be dropped for Sunday’s big game.
RB: Ahmed Elmohamady
Has made the right-back position his own recently and we don’t see him being relinquished of his duties there on Sunday.
CB: James Chester
Is building a fantastic partnership with Terry and Bruce won’t want to break it up any time soon.
CB: John Terry
As Villa captain, he will be one of the first names on the teamsheet.
LB: Alan Hutton
He must be doing something right to keep Neil Taylor out of the side, and we reckon he’ll continue at left-back on Sunday.
RM: Robert Snodgrass - 7.
snodgrass has been in the form of his life recently and Bruce would cop a lot of stick if he left him out of Sunday’s starting XI.
CM: Birkir Bjarnason - 8
It looks like Bruce has finally found the best position for Bjarnason. He has done a great job in the last few matches and we expect him to be tasked with doing the same on Sunday.
CM: Conor Hourihane
Bruce will start Hourihane and will hope that he can use his creativity to pick holes in Birmingham’s defence.
CM: Jack Grealish
Grealish is a Villa fan through and through and there’s no way Bruce will deny him a start on Sunday, especially with the form that he’s in.
LM: Albert Adomah -
Adomah scored his 13th goal of the season last weekend, and he will almost certainly get the chance to add to his tally on Sunday.
ST: Scott Hogan
Hogan’s confidence will be high thanks to the goal-scoring form that he is in, so Bruce will give him another start against Birmingham.