A Tottenham Hotspur perspective

Spurs: Draw

One of his star players is Steven Davis, who made an impressive debut in the 1-0 home win against Spurs last November, and who also shone for Northern Ireland in the recent headline-making International in Belfast.

Most of Villa's new signings played at Upton Park, but obviously failed to impress, but Berger was on the bench and Bakke has yet to be drafted in.

Milan Baros scored the only goal in Villa's only win so far, in his debut in front of the Villa fans. Sorensen does not seem to be the keeper he was a couple of years ago.

So - there are a lot of negatives about Villa, and no doubt there will be a lot of concern over the strength of the new Spurs line-up. However, Spurs have only won once in their 13 Premiership visits to Villa Park (18th January, 2003), and you have to go back to the 86-87 season (when Villa were last relegated) for our previous away win.

Goals have also been hard to come by since our first two games. With little height in the Villa attack, Anthony Gardner might have been given his first rest of the season, but Michael Dawson will not be available due to a Hamstring injury in training, and it seems that this year Nourredine Naybet is to be the perpetual substitute.

Teemu Tainio sat out the Liverpool game, and maybe he'll get a start this time, in an otherwise unchanged midfield.

Robbie Keane may well have to wait till Tuesday's League Cup game at Grimsby before getting a start. I'm going to take Spurs to win this one, by just one goal, and I'll go for a 2-1.

Thanks to Paul from Spurs Odyssey for this preview. To read the full match preview from his site click here.