The Villa Match Zone

Nothing To Play For But Pride For The Lions? 3 Things v Millwall

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Three Things – Millwall

This weekend sees the final round of scheduled Championship fixtures as we travel down to the New Den to face Millwall. A few weeks ago, this match looked as if it would have plenty riding on it for both teams, as we chased automatic promotion and Millwall were looking to secure an unlikely and unexpected play-off spot – unlikely and unexpected because they had only just come up from League One last summer.

Unfortunately for both of us, we failed in our objectives and the game now is something of a dead rubber. We are guaranteed to finish in fourth spot, while Millwall would need results elsewhere to go their way, as well as overturning a nine-goal deficit, to pip Derby into sixth. There is no way in the world they will put enough goals past Villa, so it’s not unreasonable to say there is really nothing much at stake in this match.

1) What team do we put out?

As with last week’s Three Things, the question is what kind of team Steve Bruce will put out. League rules mean we can’t rest everyone and ‘play the kids’, but that’s not Bruce’s style anyway. He played pretty much a full-strength side against Derby at the weekend, with Alan Hutton and Jonathan Kodjia coming on and getting valuable minutes under their belts as they recover from injury.

I wouldn’t be surprised to see both of them starting on Sunday. Irrespective of the severity of Neil Taylor’s knock, he had what could charitably be described as a stinker before being subbed, and Hutton turned in a MOTM performance once he came on. I can see Sunday’s team being not far off the one which finished the game against Derby, although I would be tempted to rest John Terry and Jack Grealish ahead of the play-offs.

They are two key players for us and Terry is only just back from injury, while Millwall are a no-nonsense side who wouldn’t think twice about kicking Super Jack all around south London, so I’d err on the side of caution and give him a rest.

Johnstone, Elmo, Chester, Jedinak, Hutton, Snodgrass, Whelan, Hourihane, Lansbury, Onomah, Hogan. Subs: Bunn, Bree/Taylor, Terry, Barney (if fit), Adomah, Kodjia, Grabban.

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