Here are the teams from Villa Park. Interesting Villa side. No Curtis Davies at the back so Ciaran Clark makes his first team debut and Stephen Warnock only makes the bench. Steve Sidwell plays instead of Fabien Delph and it looks like Gabby Agbonlahor will be the lone front man, with John Carew starting on the bench.
Danny Murphy misses out for Fulham so Jonathan Greening comes in for his debut. Clint Dempsey takes Zoltan Gera’s place and we’ve got what we wanted up front. It’s Diomansy Kamara and Erik Nevland – the pair who ripped Villa apart at the Cottage at the end of last season – as Bobby Zamora hasn’t recovered from that Achilles problem. Eddie Johnson is on the bench.
ASTON VILLA (4-5-1): Friedel, Beye, Cuellar, Clark, Shorey; Petrov, Milner, Sidwell, Reo-Coker, A. Young; Agbonlahor. Subs: Guzan, Carew, Albrighton, Delph, Heskey, Warnock, Gardner.
FULHAM (4-4-2): Schwarzer; Pantsil, Konchesky, Hughes, Hangeland; Etuhu, Greening, Dempsey, Duff; Nevland, Kamara. Subs: Zuberbuhler, Kelly, Baird, Gera, Riise, E. Johnson, Smalling.
