Andy81

You're quite right, it will be interesting, any team in this league would miss Neves. Thankfully we do have a couple of options to replace him, Jack Price is probably the closest match to him in the squad, but I expect we'll start with N'diaye who has the physical presence we probably want in a derby game. I asked two Villa fans yesterday what they would want from Blues v Wolves, both said they want Blues to lose While I'm here, just have to say Villa's run has been absolutely fantastic, especially with the injuries you've had to deal with. I can see a Wolves/Villa 1, 2 this season.

Fair enough. We don't really see it that way ourselves to be honest, I live in London, and London Wolves have been going since 1966 for example, but as you say, it's hardly scientific. Anyway, this is off topic, I'll be interested to see how you get on against Fulham. I've not seen them this season. Will Greelish (sp) be back?

What are you basing this on out of interest?

Completely agree.

Villa's defence (and midfield) will have to have a really good game to stop Wolves scoring. Just looking at the stats, only twice this season have we failed to score, and I think we've scored in every home game. Statistically, Villa will probably need two goals if they want to win the game.

Evening All, I'm the Wolves fan who posted a link to this thread, so as requested I'll give my thoughts. First of all, I should say I've been reading VillaTalk on and off for years now, always seems to give a balanced and fair set of views in general. Secondly, with regards to Villa as a club, like most Wolves fans I've always had a strong respect for Villa, and when we're not in the same league I've always been happy to see you do well. Clearly this season we're rivals, but I'd expect most of us would be happy to see the two clubs finish in the top two this season. Villa are clearly the biggest club in the Midlands and to my mind have under achieved for decades. You'll know better than me why this is, but really, Villa shouldn't be dropping out of the top eight in the Premier League really. I was at the game at Villa Park in the Premier League when Wolves won 1-0. It was the first time in my lifetime that Wolves had beat Villa and it meant a lot, not due to any dislike of Villa, more of a milestone that we had reached at the time to be able to compete with Villa. Having said that, the Championship is full of good sized clubs that would feel at home in the Premier League, this is part of what makes the Championship so exciting to my mind. I don't know what the thoughts of Villa fans are on this, but from my point of view the transfer stratergy Villa have employed since relegation has been questionable. It seems to me like you've made somewhat of a slapdash aproach spending so much money hoping some of it will work out. It seems like that might actually be working now, though, from what I have seen, if I was a Villa fan I'd worry about how dependent you are on Kodja being fit, although Snodgrass seems to have been an important signing too, and your goalkeeper looks like quality. While you have had some impressive away wins recently against Barnsley and Burton, you seem to ben just sneaking over the line at home, the wins against Bolton and Forest weren't convincing, I watched the Forest game, and it was a cracking free kick to win the match but I did think you were a little lucky to win that one. Playing badly and winning is the sign of a good team however, so maybe you have that at the moment. It's a great habit to pick up! With regards to our game, I must admit to feeling bullish about it, but I think it really could go either way. I think I'd be more confident if the game was at Villa park. As you've said, I think the smart thing to do for Villa is to sit deep, try to press our centre midfield and wing backs, then look to play on the break and for set pieces. Going the other way, we have a very talented front three for this league, and dangerous wing backs. How you handle this will be key. Wolves are vunerable to set pieces, but we don't conceed too many goals from open play. Wolves v Villa always feels like a big game to me, can't wait to see the two kits under the floodlights. All the best,

Afternoon all, I'm Andy, a Wolves fan living in London. I've actually read VillaTalk for years on and off, and I posted a link to the Wolves (a) pre match thread in a video games forum as has been mentioned. I thought I'd give some thoughts on the game. Cheers!