I may have spotted a Baggies fan or two playfully suggesting that their team could be responsible for the sacking of two Premier League managers in a week. I don’t think a loss would automatically lead there, but it would increase the pressure on Houllier exponentially. Beyond breaking point? Not quite, but close I’d imagine.

The good news is that this game is at home, all away fixtures leave me with a sense of foreboding these days.

I think we have to give props to Roberto Di Matteo, he’s a good fit at the Hawthorns; able to continue the Baggies’ policy of playing positive, attractive football, with the added bonus of getting the odd result here and there.

But they are very beatable.

Their recent league form is a mixed bag. They started November with an away loss to Blackpool before Man City came to town and left with all the points. They could only draw at Upton Park and followed that with two losses; 1-0 at Wigan and 3-0 at home to Stoke.

But they went to Goodison and turned Everton over 4-1 and we should all know that they beat Newcastle 3-1 last Sunday.

They’ll likely play some form of 4-5-1 variant, possibly with Graham Dorrans and/or Youssuf Mulumbu as the midfield anchor(s) in front of the back line, distributing the ball and generally making life difficult for anything we do through the middle.

Up front, Peter Odemwingie has had little trouble adapting to life in the Midlands and is the club’s leading scorer with six goals in the Premier League and a couple of assists to boot.

He’s fast and mobile, not dissimilar to Gabby, and, unfortunately for Stephen Warnock, he likes to work the right side of the pitch where he’s been linking up well with Somen Tchoyi, who seems to now be settling in after his move from Red Bull Salzburg. He’s generally considered a central play maker, but Di Matteo seems to be using him in wide positions.

Injuries, injuries, injuries

It’s good news and bad news for us on the availability front. Ash returns from his suspension, but Ciaran Clark will be out on his own suspension. Emile Heskey will be declared fit, but Gabby is out with a chest infection and Luke Young will miss the game with a groin problem.

Barry Bannan seems to be over his groin issue, but it will be interesting to see whether James Collins starts after it emerged this week that he was spotted enjoying the Birmingham nightlife in the wee hours of Sunday night, breaking the curfew ahead of Monday’s trip to Anfield. EDIT: Turns out the Telegraph misreported this, see here for correction.

I don’t think there’s any suggestion he was tying one on, but definitely to be filed under “what was he thinking?” given our current mess. Houllier will surely have been unimpressed, but it was rightly brushed under the carpet, no need to make a big fuss.

However, it will add fuel the fire burning for Carlos Cuellar‘s inclusion in the starting line up and I’d love to see King Carlos back myself, but I think we have to appreciate that we’re not party to what happens in training and, for all I know, Cuellar may be struggling to take on board new instructions.

I’ve no reason to suspect that, I’m just throwing it out there because there’s a desire to scrutinise every little decision the manager makes, but it’s almost always done without being privy to what he knows. Same goes for any manager at any time, but worse for this one right now.

I wouldn’t be adverse to seeing Carlos in at right back for this one, but early word suggests that Habib Beye will be fit and may well get the nod.

I did come across an interesting statistic recently that I’ve been unable to relocate, but it showed over the last 50 Premiership games that our win percentage was highest with Cuellar in the side and lowest without him. I’m generally cautious about reading too much into such correlations, but right now I’d take comfort from anything.

Marc Albrighton didn’t look fully fit at Anfield, understandably so, hopefully he’ll have that extra sharpness for this one and we may well see Stephen Ireland start again; at least he seemed a lot more willing to put himself around against Liverpool. It’s a start and it’s impossible to slate the bloke after seeing him in the Acorns Christmas feature. I don’t mind admitting that brought a little lump to my throat, well done Stephen.

Whoever plays, every single one of them needs to stand up and put in a performance like they care. More passes than we’ve ever seen against Liverpool, but none that mattered. We need to see an approach more akin to what we saw against Man Utd; pace, determination, purpose and belief.

The latter is probably the missing ingredient; they seemed comfortable playing the way they did against Utd, but looked like they hadn’t been formally introduced to each other against Liverpool. I’m all for moving to more of a possession based game, but let’s get back to basics first.

It would seem redundant to point out how important this game is, it’s a must win, it’s just that simple.

Team News

Dunne dropped, Cuellar in, Ash takes the armband and Eric Lichaj gets his first Premier League start. Odemwingie is out for the Baggies.

Aston Villa Starting XI: Friedel, Lichaj, Cuellar, Collins, Warnock, Bannan, Hogg, Downing, Albrighton, A Young, Heskey. Subs: Dunne, Carew, Guzan, Pires, Herd, Delfouneso, Reo-Coker.

West Brom Starting XI: Carson, Jara, Cech, Tamas, Scharner, Tchoyi, Thomas, Dorrans, Brunt, Morrison, Fortune. Subs: Myhill, Shorey, Ibanez, Cox, Miller, Reid, Mulumbu.