1. Physical presence of Benteke could be difficult to contain.
Admittedly, Christian Benteke hasn’t had a superb season, but he still poses a threat in aerial duels. I think if we allow him to win the headers then we’ll be in trouble, because the way Aston Villa play, they like to hit the big man and have fast players, such as Gabriel Agbonlahor and Scott Sinclair, running of them so if we allow them to play this way we could be in for a difficult afternoon.
2. Herrera vs Delph will be an intriguing battle.
Here we have Ander Herrera who is extremely gifted and makes our team click, against a player in Fabian Delph who doesn’t seem to stop running and is prone to a yellow card or two. I think that Delph’s work rate could possibly shut out Herrera’s creative edge, but he’ll need to work hard because Herrera isn’t exactly a lazy player, he does get himself about on the pitch.
3. Can Mata continue his superb form into this match?
I think he’ll be animated when walking out of the tunnel onto the hallowed turf on Saturday. After putting in two fantastic performances prior to the international break, I personally think he can carry it on against a weaker opponent in Aston Villa.
4. To play Angel or not to play? That is the question!
Against a team like Aston Villa I think he has to play. We need him to hit form ahead of our games against Manchester City (H), Chelsea (A) and Everton (A), and we need to have him firing. When he is on form, there is no doubt he is the best player at our club and one of the best in the world. However, it would be extremely harsh on Ashley Young to drop him against his old club – especially as he is in fine form.
5. How will the players react following the international break?
The international break came at completely the wrong time for us, we were enjoying tremendous form before having to put our run on hold. Thankfully no one got injured, and we can play our full strength squad (providing that no one is jet lagged). It will be interesting to see if we can continue the high intensity so soon after the break, but I guess we’ll find out when the players take their place to play Aston Villa with a 3.00pm kick-off on Saturday inside the Theatre of Dreams.
