Thursday, Wolves at Villa Park tomorrow, the big question and match facts from the BBC

It's a team game and it's nice to see that we've got players in the squad that can play a role and make an impact when required, but then switch that up and take on the role of starting. Thursday showed that and not for the first time this season.

And it's going to be causing a headache for the manager because Donyell Malen it making it very difficult for the manager to keep picking Ollie Watkins over him and I think this could be the weekend where the manager decides to give Malen the start over Watkins in the League.

And I think the manager is the type of manager that when this happens, he'll give the player he's starting time. By that I mean, it's not one start for Malen, it's he's getting the next ten. Like it was in the good old days. But I could be wrong and Ollie starts tomorrow and if he does, he could just as easily score three.

Malen would have scored three on Thursday if he'd played more than 60 minutes. But again, that's just me saying something, we have no idea.

I just know there has to come a time when Malen becomes first choice if he keeps performing and Ollie doesn't start scoring. For the record, I don't care who it is as long as the goals come and it might actually be good for Ollie to be seen as a player that can come on and make an impact, because unless Kane gets injured, that's the role the England manager will be looking for.

There is actually something in this for Ollie if it happens and he has to embrace it and know it's a team game and not let his head drop if it happens. It's football and he knows, but you never know how a player reacts. But enough about that, it's all about Wolves tomorrow.

And I have no real view on the match or Wolves at the moment although I would like them to stay in the Premier League. That said, I have a view on the manager and I'm writing this in the knowledge that he is one of our own.

And it's that how he treated Middlesbrough isn't how it's supposed to be done. From now on for the rest of his career in management, he can't ever complain about a player wanting out. Any player that signs a contract with him as the manager knows they can get out of it, because he has set the standard.

Football isn't how it was and Edwards will probably be relegated with Wolves this season and while they're probably thinking he's a manager that can get them promoted, while he wasn't at Luton at the end of last season, it was his side that went down to League One. He might not be the manager they were hoping for.

But he has tomorrow to show the world. And it's why tomorrow is an important match. Not just because it's a derby, because Wolves are a wounded animal and you never know what you're going to get with a team sitting bottom of the table. You know how you have to approach them and as long as we do everything the manager wants and the players that start do what they have to do, I'm confident of the result, but we still have to be cautious.

Match facts from the BBC

• Aston Villa have won their last two home league games against Wolves, having won just one of their previous nine against them at Villa Park (D5 L3).

• Wolves won just one of their 14 top-flight games against Aston Villa between 1980 and 2012 (7%). Since both teams have been back in the Premier League (2019), Wolves have won six of their 12 against the Villans (50%).

• Aston Villa have won all four of their Premier League games played immediately after playing in Europe in midweek this season, the only side with a 100% winning record so far.

• Aston Villa have lost just one of their last 24 Premier League home games (W15 D8), going down 3-0 against Crystal Palace in August.

• Wolves are winless in all 12 of their Premier League games this season, picking up just two points. It’s the third lowest points total 12 games into a season in English top-flight history after Manchester United in 1930-31 (0) and Sheffield United in 2020-21 (1).

• Aston Villa have won six of their last seven Premier League games (L1), a run that saw them move from 18th to 4th in the Premier League table.

• Wolves are winless in their last 16 Premier League games (D3 L13), losing the last five in a row. It’s their longest winless run in the competition since a run of 17 between February 2012 and August 2018, with that run also containing the last time they lost six in a row in the same season (7 in March/April 2012).

• Aston Villa have scored more goals from outside the box than any other side in the Premier League this season (8, including two direct free-kicks). Indeed, the Villans have netted more from distance than opponents Wolves have scored in total (7) so far this term.

• Morgan Rogers has been involved in five goals in his last seven Premier League games for Aston Villa (3 goals, 2 assists). Last time out against Leeds, he scored his first ever brace in the competition, as well as scoring from his first ever attempt from a direct free-kick.

• No player has scored more than once for Wolves across their 12 games so far in the Premier League this season. Only four sides have had a longer wait from the start of a campaign for a player to score twice – Bradford City (15 games in 2000-01), Huddersfield Town (13 in 2018-19), Tottenham (13 in 2006-07) and Wimbledon (13 in 1994-95).