West Brom vs Aston Villa - Team News, Match Preview & Likely Line-Ups

HawthornsVenue: The Hawthorns Date: Saturday, 19th January K/o: 17:30

Team News

West Brom will have to assess Claudio Yacob and Marc-Antoine Fortune after the duo suffered hamstring injuries recently, whilst Shane Long is a doubt with a dead leg. Aston Villa captain Ron Vlaar could make his first appearance since November after suffering a calf injury. Darren Bent is a doubt with a knee injury and Chris Herd and Marc Albrighton are out.

Match Preview

West Brom have been a surprise package in the Premier League this season, and in spite of making a mixed start to the current Premier League campaign, the Baggies are currently sitting in 7th place, just a point behind Arsenal and four points off a Europa League place. Aston Villa, by contrast, have been relatively poor this season. Their embarrassing 3-1 defeat by Bradford in the League Cup typifies their campaign so far, and their only win this month came against Ipswich in the FA Cup. You have to go back to 15th December to find their last Premier League win - against Liverpool. After that they were battered 8-0, 4-0 and 3-0 by Chelsea, Tottenham and Wigan, and currently find themselves in the relegation zone. To make matters worse, West Brom are unbeaten in their last four games against Aston Villa. They have won two of those matches, with the last two ending in draws. A point certainly isn't enough for Villa at this stage.

Likely Line-Ups

West Brom Foster, McAuley, Ridgewell, Jones, Popov, Morrison, Brunt, Dorrans, Thorne, Lukaku, Odemwingie Aston Villa Guzan, Lowton, Clark, Lichaj, Vlaar, Holman, Bannan, Westwood, Ireland, Benteke, Weimann Source: BBC
Contributor
Contributor

Joseph is an accredited football journalist and has interviewed nearly all of the current 20 Barclay's Premier League managers. He is also a correspondent for Bleacher Report and has written for Caught Offside and Give Me Football.