Stoke at Villa Park, team news and a video

In my defence, things have become fairly predictable the past few years. From Randy Lerner to the fake Doctor, from part time CEO's and have a go managers. We've been on this journey to where we find ourselves today and I don't think anyone can be blamed for a degree of lethargy.

So the lack of posts is mostly because of that. It doesn't matter what you write, nothing is going to change and above all else, the football hasn't been great. You'd take bad football if you were winning silverware, but we weren't doing that. And the way the Club has marketed itself to the vulnerable, it's sort of played out as I thought it would.

You mark my words, we'll have the disco lights and dance music at a night game soon and for a moment you'll be forgiven for momentarily thinking it's an American ice hockey or basketball match. We need to cater for the tribe and instagrammable moment. The insights tell us this.

This week, I've also been getting the site ready for an update. It's happened on some pages and very soon it will be happening everywhere else, I just need my guy to fix a few things first. But that is why I've been a little quiet.

Aston Villa v Stoke

Team news

So you've heard the news that Jack Grealish is looking like he might not make it after picking up a shin injury this week. I like Jack and he's got so much potential, but I'm not sure it's that big a miss for us. I think it can be and will be one day, I just think we're playing Stoke at home and we have players that can play in his role.

Adomah is probably still out and Taylor and Lansbury have both got hamstring problems. Other than that, I think the team picks itself and that is actually quite nice to hear.

Match facts from the BBC

• Stoke City have not in their last six away league trips to Aston Villa.
• Villa have lost each of their last three league games against Stoke - all in the Premier League between February 2015 and February 2016.
• Since losing successive games at the end of October, just after Dean Smith was appointed, Villa have gone unbeaten - their best run since winning seven games in a row under Steve Bruce in February.
• Stoke have drawn six of their 10 away games in the Championship this season - the most in the division, along with Nottingham Forest.
• Jack Grealish has created 47 chances for his Villa teammates so far this season - only Sheffield United's Oliver Norwood (52) has created more.
• Sam Clucas has been involved in four goals in his last three Championship appearances for Stoke (one strike, three assists).