Kickin' It: Aston Villa prepare for busy week despite injuries

Lots to get to this week. We've got everything you need to start your Monday off right, including all the pertinent Villa facts, a recap of the week that was, and a look ahead to a busy two-week match.

Just The Facts, Please

Form (Last 5, most recent first): W L L L W

Results Last Week: Norwich City 0-1 Aston Villa (EPL)

Upcoming Fixtures:

• First Team:
  Tottenham Hotspur (League Cup) - Tuesday, September 24, 1945 GMT, 1445 Eastern
  Manchester City (EPL) - Saturday, September 28, 1500 GMT, 1000 Eastern

Tracking Villa's Progress

A look at how Aston Villa are doing compared to corresponding fixtures from last season. For a more full explanation of the corresponding fixtures table, see here.

Sadly, the win at Norwich City was one that Villa had last year, so there's no larger improvement in the number of corresponding points that the club have. But still, this is just for fun. The win is still fantastic.

Injuries

New Injuries Last Week:

• Christian Benteke - groin
• Ashley Westwood - muscle strain

Match Notes

Norwich City 0-1 Aston Villa (EPL)
Libor Kozak (30’)

• Still no word as to when Christian Benteke will be back, which, despite anything else that happened, was the biggest story of this match. If he's out for any length of time, Villa will definitely notice his absence. Luckily, the club has about a million strikers though.
• Speaking of spare strikers, how about Libor Kozak? A mere two minutes after coming on for the injured Benteke, he opened his account at Aston Villa with a goal that showed a lot of presence of mind. After missing his initial attempt, Kozak noticed that Gabby Agbonlahor was in position to send the ball back in. So Kozak calmly took a few steps back, received the pass from Gabby, and calmly put the ball in the back of the net. Not a bad way to start things off.
• There were some questions on twitter as to whether or not I'd changed my mind on the Kozak singing after his strong match. I've got an article going up in about an hour that should answer those.
• We certainly shouldn't forget the fact that Brad Guzan had, possibly, his best game in the claret and blue. His save of the Robert Snodgrass penalty kept the game even when it probably shouldn't have been. And then his gravity-defying save in the 90th minute preserved the win. But don't worry, we'll have gifs of those in the recap that'll go up in a bit.
• All things considered, the best part of the match was the fact that it was not only an Aston Villa win, but an entertaining one at that. After three straight losses, it was nice to actually enjoy watching football again.
• You can find our recap here.
• The WhoScored recap is here.

Looking Ahead

• With lots of injuries, I have absolutely no idea what Paul Lambert will do in Tuesday's Capital One Cup match against Tottenham. On the one hand, he doesn't really have everyone he needs for a first-choice squad, and so he may just elect to run out a young team and hope that the massacre isn't too bad.
• But he may say "screw it" and put the best possible players on the pitch. Tottenham, who are playing in Europe, will likely run out a less-than-best team, and the chance for a Villa win is certainly there. Given the fact that the League Cup may be one of the best routes for Villa to return to European play, it wouldn't shock me to see Lambert go all-out.
• After the tough midweek cup match, Villa get to take on Manchester City at home. You know, the squad that just demolished Manchester United 4-1. Yeah, it could be a long week. And to be honest? I'd probably feel better if either of these matches were away. Villa have just been so bad at home that I'm not excited to see them play in Villa Park again.

Miscellany

Official site still hilariously taking credit for Bent and Ireland | AVFC Official Site

I'm just linking this because I think it's hilarious that the team's site is still reporting on the goings-on of Stephen Ireland and Darrent Bent as if Villa fans should care.

Campaign against homophobia in football suffers from poor planning | Daily Mail

The Mail headlines this as if it were clubs who made this effort fail. But from what they actually write, it seems as if poor planning by the organizing group were more at fault.

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