Aston Villa’s impressive run of results came to an abrupt end as they were beaten at Old Trafford, but Gerard Houllier’s men won’t be too downhearted by the result.
The Villans will now turn to the Fulham game, which they have to win in order to continue their climb up the Premiership standings.
New signing Michael Bradley could receive international clearance in time to face Fulham, while Stuart Downing is expected to shake off a shin injury. Nathan Baker is suspended.
Luke Young remain on the sidelines, but Stephen Warnock and Habib Beye have been dropped from the first team and are training with the reserves.
As our experts have predicted, Fulham continued the excellent home run with a routine win over Newcastle, but the Cottagers will have to show some improvement on the travels if they want to get something from this game.
Having won just one away game this season, Fulham could have problems against in-form Aston Villa.
Mark Schwarzer should return to the starting line-up after missing the last few games through international duty and that could be the only change to the side that beat Newcastle.
Dickson Etuhu could return to contention, but Bobby Zamora, Philippe Senderos and Matthew Briggs remain long-term worries.
Aston Villa are the favourites to win this one with Victor Chandler paying 1.95 (19/20) on home win, whereas Fulham are 4.20 (16/5) to win their second away game this season. Draw pays 3.50 (5/2).
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