Aston Villa v Norwich: Central defender dropped, odds, video of the day and maybe a Jenas

I commented yesterday how last week wasn't really a must win game, after saying last week that it was. Tomorrow is. Anything other than three points will be seen as failure, but we will win - even though Norwich are currently above us in the league.

Okay - that is a bold statement, but if we can't beat Norwich, then there is something really wrong and if we lose, alarm bells should be going off somewhere. This is not one of those games where there is an excuse.

Which is why we will. There are some games each season that we are supposed to win and this is one of them. Carrow Road is different - especially if the home support get behing their team, but Norwich at Villa Park - no excuses and that is why I put this match down as my banker bet last week.

Early team news

I sort of expect to see Jermaine Jenas play a roll tomorrow. I don't expect to see Herd dropped, but I do expect to see Clark come into the centre of defence for either Collins or Dunne - only because the manager said he would drop defenders that couldn't defend set pieces and last week, we let the smallest man on the pitch score a goal from a set piece and it was the responsibility of Dunne and Collins, mostly because it was exactly, without question, in the area they should have covered.

It wont be nice to see one of them dropped, but the manager has said it will happen, so I expect it to happen and whatever the performance from Clark, or maybe even Cuellar, I also expect them to now get a little run. No player can be expected to walk into the team and play the perfect match - it takes time. But we can hope for it.

It will also be a little refreshing to see the manager stick to his word. Sometimes, not always, managers say what they think we want to hear. They talk the talk, but when it comes to making the decision, they bottle it. If we learn that Collins or Dunne are injured today, it will just be a coincidence .. really.

Right, I'm keeping it short, because we will win, it is written in the stars and the odds below should reflect that too.

But before I go - why do you love football and why is Aston Villa your team? Send in your blog and we're going to start publishing them soon.

Match odds

Video of the day