Aston Villa vs Birmingham preview: Why Emile Heskey can fire Villa to a win over his old club in the Second City derby

By James Nursey

Published 10:47 28/10/10

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Sunday is the first Second City derby of the season and I believe Aston Villa will be celebrating after a tight, gritty contest.

Villa have won the last six matches when the two bitter rivals have met in the Premier League.

And I can only see Villa's dominance in the fixture continuing this weekend, not least as they are at home.

I should declare at this stage I am strictly neutral as a Norwich fan and know people in both camps.

But I am taking a keen interest in the game and will be there working on Sunday as there is no doubt it is a huge match for both clubs.

Brum under boss Alex McLeish haven't yet managed to repeat their heroics from last season when they came ninth.

There has been some criticism from the stands at McLeish's tactics and new signings like Nikola Zigic and Alexander Hleb are still to fully integrate.

City showed their potential in the previous League game when they beat Blackpool 2-0 at home using a new 4-3-1-2 formation.

But they need to avoid defeat to continue their recent momentum after also progressing in the Carling Cup.

Birmingham have former Villa midfielder Craig Gardner, signed in January for £3million, back from suspension which will add spice to the fixture.

But Villa are just as desperate for points as new manager Gerard Houllier seeks to make his mark and win over fans.

Houllier, 63, has already impressed a lot of the club's staff and players with his leadership skills, footballing knowledge and straight-talking.

But despite Villa's players being enamoured with Houllier's training sessions and tactics, the club still need to get results to back up his appointment.

Defeats to Sunderland and Tottenham have tainted the positive start to his reign behind the scenes.

And the fact that on Wednesday, Villa had still not sold all their tickets for the derby game underlines how some fans remain sceptical of the club's ambitions post-Martin O'Neill.

So Villa will surely being going all out for the victory on Sunday and I think the hosts will prevail either 1-0 or 2-1.

Birmingham's strengths are at the back and there is unlikely to be any humiliating repeat of their 5-1 loss at Villa Park in April 2008 en-route to relegation.

City chief McLeish has since built an entire new team in which the impressive Roger Johnson and Scott Dann have a great defensive partnership and keeper Ben Foster is in good form too.

But Ashley Young and Stewart Downing have the skill and pace to create chances down the flanks up against Brum full-backs Stephen Carr and Liam Ridgewell.

So I expect Villa to score with perhaps the re-born Emile Heskey, who now has four goals this season after scoring in the midweek Carling Cup win over Burnley, getting on target against his old club.

Birmingham will probably be limited to threatening from Sebastian Larsson's set-pieces and Gardner's powerful long-range shooting.

It would be a great story if Gardner scores at Villa Park and I might have a bet on the aggressive midfielder netting.

But I still expect Villa to triumph with their new stand-in captain Nigel Reo-Coker driving the home team to success.

It is good to see the hard-working Villa midfielder back in the team as O'Neill clearly held a grudge against him from their training ground spat 12 months ago.

Houllier's decision to restore Reo-Coker to the team and give him the armband in place of the injured Stiliyan Petrov will come as no surprise to Mirrorfootball regulars.

I revealed on September 30 that Houllier had been very impressed with Reo-Coker and saw him as integral to his new team after just two games.

Now the club have even opened contract negotiations with Reo-Coker and the star will probably end up committing his long-term future to the club in the New Year.

What a turnaround that would be, but first of all Villa will want to beat their arch-rivals.

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