Aston Villa will look to bounce back from their shock defeat to Queens Park Rangers at Villa Park during the week when they face a lowly Bolton Wanderers at the Macron Stadium on Saturday.
The Midlands outfit came into the rearranged clash against Rangers on the back of three successive Championship wins – including a 4-1 victory against leaders Wolverhampton Wanderers at home last Saturday – that had seen them keep the pressure up on second-place Cardiff City in the standings.
However, an unchanged team looked jaded throughout and they found themselves 2-0 behind after 33 minutes, eventually losing 3-1 with James Chester scoring a consolation goal for the hosts two minutes from time.
That result has left Steve Bruce’s side seven points adrift of the automatic promotion places with just nine matches of the season remaining – with fans choosing to remain optimistic despite the setback – and he will know that his team must take all three points against the Trotters to boost their hopes of securing a return to the Premier League the easy way by avoiding the lottery of the play-offs.
The Villans may well face a tough task against Phil Parkinson’s strugglers given Wanderers have picked up 25 of their 36 points on their own turf this season, although they have taken 30 points on the road to show how strong they are and how well they have performed.
Bruce stuck with the 4-1-4-1 system that helped them beat Wolves comfortably for the visit of QPR, but the 57-year-old may be tempted to make a change on the road in order to help his team get back to winning ways.
The former Hull City boss went with the same XI that beat the leaders against the R’s last time out, but he will be considering making some changes after such a poor midweek display.
Here is how Aston Villa must line up against Bolton on Saturday, ahead of Sam Johnstone in goal…
Bruce stuck with the back four that helped Villa record a 4-1 win over the leaders for the visit of QPR, with Ahmed Elmohamady, Chester, John Terry and Neil Taylor all starting.
The 57-year-old manager will be forced into at least one change at the back at the Macron Stadium with Taylor, who didn’t impress the Villa Park faithful with his showing, ruled out through injury after he came off against Rangers, and it has given his boss something of a problem.
With Alan Hutton also unavailable he should look to play Elmohamady at left-back and bring James Bree in at right-back, with Terry and Chester continuing their partnership at the heart of the defence.
The midfield five against Rangers consisted of Mile Jedinak, Conor Hourihane, Jack Grealish, Robert Snodgrass and Albert Adomah, and keeping those same players in the XI from the win against Wolves proved to be a mistake.
Jedinak struggled in his second appearance in 72 hours and was criticised by the fans for his display, while Hourihane failed to have as much of an impact in the middle of the field as he has previously.
Bruce should look to replace Jedinak with Birkir Bjarnason, who will feel hard done by that he isn’t starting right now given the decent form he is, with Henri Lansbury coming in for Hourihane and the other trio keeping their spots.
Having started both Lewis Grabban and Scott Hogan in the 3-0 win at Sunderland prior to the big clash against Wolves, Bruce was left with a big decision to make for the visit of the leaders as he chose to go with the one striker.
It was Grabban that got the nod and he didn’t disappoint by scoring one and assisting another, ensuring he started again against QPR.
His run of scoring in four successive Championship fixtures for Villa came to an end against Ian Holloway’s men and while the 30-year-old – like many of his teammates – wasn’t at his best, he must start against a potentially vulnerable Bolton defence.
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