Aston Villa head to Queens Park Rangers with an awful away record ahead of this Championship meet.
Aston Villa head to London for a weekend fixture against Queens Park Rangers – having tasted victory just once away from Villa Park in the last 16 months.
To compound the issue even further, Villa’s last league victory against QPR was as far back as 1991, a 1-0 scoreline – thanks to a goal from Dwight Yorke. At the end of that 1991-92 season Villa found themselves four places higher than the R’s.
Fast forward 25 years to the present day and Villa yet again sit four places above QPR, with the latter attempting to halt a run of four consecutive league defeats.
Villa boss Steve Bruce has no fresh concerns since his team’s midweek defeat against Norwich City – meaning that young Italian goalkeeper Pierluigi Gollini takes the gloves behind a back four of Alan Hutton, James Chester, Tommy Elphick and left back Jordan Amavi.
Ashley Westwood and Mile Jedinak are expected to take up the central midfield slots behind an attacking looking quartet of Gabriel Agbonlahor, Jack Grealish, Jordan Ayew and front man Jonathan Kodjia.
Meanwhile, QPR have potential selection issues – influenced by injuries and poor form.
Manager Ian Holloway is without first team members Jamie Mackie, Jordan Cousins, Steven Caulker and Jack Robinson – but could be boosted by the availability of his one-in-three-game goalscorer Idrissa Sylla.
With a points tally of just four from a possible 24 available, Holloway will be fully aware of the importance of establishing some form and results over the Christmas period – and will hope that a home victory over Villa can kick-start a poor start to his second spell in the Loftus Road hot seat, which has seen four defeats from his first five games.
Here are the predicted line-ups for Aston Villa and Queens Park Rangers in full:
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