Tonight’s game at Ewood Park is an incredibly important one for both teams. Blackburn see the Carling Cup as an excellent opportunity to improve on a currently dismal season, while Villa are looking to establish themselves among the Premier League’s best and win their first trophy for 14 years.
The postponement of the fixture last week [...]

While there will surely be changes made to the starting 11 in both teams’ next meeting, the outcome of this game was always interesting to note ahead of the upcoming Carling Cup semi final.
Martin O’Neill and Sam Allardyce made seven and nine changes respectively from their previous fixtures. Rare starts were given to Habib Beye, Fabian Delph [...]

Fans will soon be getting sick of this fixture; today’s game is the first of three meetings between these two sides within January, the other two making up the Carling Cup semi final. And, while the FA Cup remains an important competition, both teams will undoubtedly have an eye on the first leg of the Carling Cup on [...]