Newcastle United vs. Aston Villa, open match thread and lineups

Aston Villa take on Newcastle United today. There's nothing all that interesting about this match from an analytical perspective; Newcastle is slightly above mediocre, Villa's slightly less better than mediocre, neither team is all that much fun to watch. If you're here you're probably a Villa fan and if you're a Villa fan I'd hope you can understand my take on this match: I will watch all of it, I will scream and yell and throw things (probably, depending on how it goes) and my mood will be determined by how it turns out, but I cannot be assed to care about anything leading up to kickoff.

The lineups are going to be what they're going to be, the form is almost entirely irrelevant, and neither team is the least bit predictable. It could be absurdly negative, it could be sloppily exciting. Who knows? It's mid-table Premier League football everyone! Let's catch the fever!

Aston Villa Starting XI

Brad Guzan; Leandro Bacuna, Ron Vlaar, Nathan Baker, Ryan Bertrand; Ashley Westwood, Fabian Delph, Karim El Ahmadi; Andi Weimann, Christian Benteke, Gabby Agbonlahor

Aston Villa Subs

Jed Steer, Yacouba Sylla, Grant Holt, Ciaran Clark, Marc Albrighton, Aleksandar Tonev, Joe Bennett

Newcastle Starting XI

Tim Krul; Mathieu Debuchy, Mike Williamson, Fabricio Coloccini, Paul Dummett; Moussa Sissoko, Cheik Tiote, Vurnon Anita, Yoan Gouffran; Loïc Remy, Papiss Cisse

Newcastle Subs

Rob Elliot, Massadio Haidara, Mapou Yanga-Mbiwa, Steven Taylor, Dan Gosling, Shola Ameobi, Luuk de Jong