Aston Villa will return home to Villa Park after their 8-0 mauling at the hands of Chelsea over the weekend as they get ready to take on Tottenham Hotspur in their Boxing Day encounter, looking to get back to their winning ways. After their stunning victory against Liverpool at Anfield just the previous weekend, Villa were ripped apart by the high flying London side as they caved in just after the third minute when Fernando Torres opened the scoring and from then onwards, Villa were just leaking in goal after goal and if Villa didn’t have Brad Guzan in goal, Chelsea might just have become the first side in the history of the Premier League to score in double figures.
In Christian Benteke, Paul Lambert and Villa have a genuine goal threat but he was absolutely rubbish against Chelsea, as were most of his team mates and the match against Spurs gives them the opportunity to show the world that they are not a side that can be hammered any and every time and that they are definitely not the whipping boys of the league. Villa has been a brilliant side at home this season, taking Manchester United to the limit and were extremely unlucky to lose 2-3 in the match and with Tottenham not in the greatest form themselves, Villa might have gotten themselves a match where they can show to the league that they can be quite the surprise package.
Spurs, on the other hand, are coming off a disappointing goal less draw against the ultra defensive Stoke City side at home, a result that will extremely frustrate manager Andre Vilas Boas and the Portuguese manager will look to take advantage of the shambles that Villa are in to get back to winning ways and mount a serious challenge for the fourth spot as they presently find themselves on 30 points, the same number as Arsenal and Everton in fourth and fifth respectively but lying in sixth due to a inferior goal difference.
Spurs has been leaking goals at the back and not scoring adequate goals in spite of having Emmanuel Adebayor and Jermain Defoe, two of the best strikers in the Premier League. But after the return of Belgian midfield dynamo Moussa Dembele to the lineup, Spurs can look forward to some creativity in the centre of the park which they hope to exploit against the Villans.