By Ryan Ghee
October 14 2005

Aston Villa return to Premiership action at the weekend with the all-important Birmingham derby on Sunday afternoon. Both teams desperately need three points and Villa will be hoping for their first Premiershp win over their arch-rivals for the first time in seven attempts. Aston Villa team news: Aston Villa will travel to St Andrew's without several first team players due to the ongoing injury crisis at Villa Park. Gavin McCann, Lee Hendrie and Mark Delaney will all miss the match whilst O'Leary is still sweating over the fitness of Milan Baros, Kevin Phillips and Aaron Hughes. That means Juan Pablo Angel could lead the front line despite only arriving back in the country on Friday night. Meanwhile, goalkeeper Thomas Sorensen returned from international duty with a hamstring injury so Stuart Taylor could be set to make his Premiership debut for The Villans.

Birmingham team news: Long-term absentee David Dunn is fit again so could be drafted into Steve Bruce's starting eleven. Muzzy Izzet is a doubt for the match as he is still having problems with an achilles injury and Mehdi Nafti is still on the sidelines. Neil Kilkenny is expected to start after serving his one match ban while Nicky Butt will miss out due to suspension.

History of this fixture: Aston Villa have played Birmingham a total of 111 times with Villa winning 45 of the matches, Birmingham winning 37, and 29 of the encounters ending as a draw. In the last few years it has been Birmingham who have had the upper hand, winning four of the last six Premiership matches, with the other two ending in draws. In last season's corresponding fixture, Birmingham ran out 2-0 winners with the the reverse fixture at Villa Park also ending in a 2-1 victory for The Blues.

Match Betting: Aston Villa win - 7/4
Birmingham win - 11/8
Draw - 2/1