Aston Villa v Tottenham Hotspur Match Thread

[PaulWinch again]

Well I hope he's ready if he's on the bench.

[David_Nab]

Clark out of starting line up now ,Baker starts

[eastie]

@JackWoodwardAV: https://t.co/12S1aBuT7W Apologies given wrong info just to confirm one change Baker in for Clark! #avfc #avtv

@AVFCOfficial: Correction - #AVFC subs: Subs: Steer, Helenius, Sylla, Benteke, Bowery, Tonev, Lowton. #AVFCLIVE #THFC

[PaulWinch again]

Oh fuck that is bad news, Clark has been in good form and I don't particularly rate Baker. Still come on you Villa boys.

[eastie]

All confusing unless Clark has pulled out late leaving baker to play and benteke to join bench ?
Was announced as Clark starting and no benteke in 18 20 minutes ago by Woodward and kendrick.

[paul_e]

All confusing unless Clark has pulled out late leaving baker to play and benteke to join bench ?
Was announced as Clark starting and no benteke in 18 20 minutes ago by Woodward and kendrick.

Lowton is the one who came onto the bench late to replace Clark, who has clearly withdrawn when he arrived, I'd guess a virus.

Herd and Bennett dropped from the bench that was announced to be replaced by Helenius and Benteke, which looks oddly like a clerical error.

[PaulWinch again]

We need Clark to be fit long term, because we can't afford to have Baker starting every week.

[dekko]

Official Dekko prediction:

Villa 2 goals down by the hour mark - Benteke to come off the bench and score a ten minute hatrick, including one where he steals the ball off Loris as he bounces the ball, one where heads it wide but it goes in through a hole in the netting, with the third awarded by a Phil Dowd clerical error.

[Axl Rose]

Always think Sylla should start ahead of Westwood, who for me is too similar to El Ahmadi.

Come on villa, get into these immediately. They have very good movement up front, so Baker coming in does not bode well. He is too cumbersome. I hope the guys I just slated have a blinder!

Up the Villa!

Also, Weimann and Agbonlahor, especially Andi, need to do so much more, contribution-wise. Andi should play through the middle whilst Benteke is out, as is far more effective there. Kozak-I'm still unimpressed. Despite my moaning, I'm still looking forward to it. No sitting back Villa, please start strongly.

[Matt Collins]

What a fiasco that teamsheet stuff was!

I presume Clark was a late injury. But Bentke, Lowton and Helenius all not originally on the bench either.

Clark out is a blow. Think the Baker / Luna side of the defence is weak - plenty of gaps to exploit. Good that Defoe isn't playing though. I reckon he'd have given Baker the runaround.

Tough, tough game this.

[Dante Lavelli]

We need Clark to be fit long term, because we can't afford to have Baker starting every week.

He needs games if he is to improve so it's not *that* bad.  After all people were saying the same about Clark last season and now we're saying he'll be missed.

[PaulWinch again]

What a fiasco that teamsheet stuff was!

I presume Clark was a late injury. But Bentke, Lowton and Helenius all not originally on the bench either.

Clark out is a blow. Think the Baker / Luna side of the defence is weak - plenty of gaps to exploit. Good that Defoe isn't playing though. I reckon he'd have given Baker the runaround.

Tough, tough game this.

Baker's poor positioning and lack of ability on the ball are a problem. Hopefully we'll get at them though and get a result.

[Axl Rose]

Eriksen on the bench is just the type of classy number 10 we need. Spurs made all the fanfare about buying him, now he's on the bench. I hate Spurs, it's as if teams like them, Chelsea and Man City just buy players to stop other teams buying them!

[PaulWinch again]

This will be very tough and we'll need to be at our best to stand a chance.

[Matt Collins]

Eriksen on the bench is just the type of classy number 10 we need. Spurs made all the fanfare about buying him, now he's on the bench. I hate Spurs, it's as if teams like them, Chelsea and Man City just buy players to stop other teams buying them!

Eriken's first choice for them I'm sure. It's just that he's played two international games and Spurs have a big squad.

Just heard interesting and distressing stats on the radio. Since we last finished above Spurs in 08-09:

- Spurs gross spend is c £300m. Net spend of £4m
- Villa gross spend of c £180m, net spend of about £60m I think.

That's obviously in part because Spurs also had a much better transfer policy going into that period, meaning they could sell bit part or indeed main players for  decent price, or even super profit. We've effectively written off the values of all bar about 5 players who played for us in the four years up to last summer.