For Gerrard’s sake we need to come flying out the blocks for this. I’d take 1-0, but would like to see us give Brighton a pasting, just so it sets us up.
I reckon we may see a few surprises, with some of the youngsters featuring. I’d maybe do that just to put some of the more senior players on notice, that they aren’t necessarily getting picked on seniority. Bit of a gamble, but if it works, it stirrs everything up nicely. In fairness we could probably play the U23s and reasonably expect them to perform better than the first team squad has over the last few games. Obviously he’ll go with what he sees in the few days of training, but I expect one or 2 surprises. New manager bounce- 3-0 Villa.