The four West Midlands clubs are all in action this weekend, as Charlie Haffenden dissects the latest talking points from them all ahead of the matches.
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00:00 Wolves are once again in the capital this weekend as they take on league leaders Arsenal.
00:07 What can we expect from the game?
00:09 I think this one is tricky obviously with Arsenal topping the league now. At home Wolves
00:16 are very good though beating these top sides, it's just away from, they struggle a bit no
00:21 matter who they play against. This one is at the Emirates so I think O'Neill's team
00:25 maybe got that against them but they are playing better against the sides in the top half.
00:29 It's better when teams come at Wolves, they get to play out a little bit more and utilise
00:35 a transition so I think they'll actually be better in that game than they were against
00:38 Fulham. They look decent against Fulham, don't get me wrong, but the fair result probably
00:42 being a draw or a win for Fulham.
00:44 West Brom may be third but can we expect a dip in form if they do not start to convert
00:49 more of their chances?
00:51 I think so yeah because they've got such a tough run of fixtures as well. It might be
00:54 bold of me to say they're in third at the moment but it is so tight, it's just four
00:59 points to Preston in seventh, a couple of defeats to West Brom and they're right back
01:03 out of it again and they have got those tough games coming up. I think we've got Leicester
01:08 at the weekend, Sunderland to play as well, Middlesbrough, Stoke, Norwich, Leeds all in
01:12 the next seven. Rotherham in there as well, they should be able to win against them but
01:16 I believe away from them. So yeah it is a tricky run and I think it will tell a lot
01:22 actually what these results are in this. If they can come out of it relatively unscathed
01:26 though and they're still in third, fourth, fifth place then I think they've got a very
01:30 good chance because the fixtures after that are very good.
01:33 With fixtures bounting up for Aston Villa, will their squad be able to cope and maintain
01:38 their high standards?
01:39 They've been very consistent actually. They do seem to rotate a little bit and they've
01:43 got that squad depth to be able to do that. Newcastle we've seen recently of their injuries
01:47 they simply can't do that. Brighton as well in a very similar situation. Villa have got
01:52 a few problems but not as much for quantity. It's more just the severity and the key players
01:56 that they're missing. So the fact they've still got a fair amount of quantity there
02:00 means they can utilise the rotation and it has worked for them. There is the occasional
02:05 lapse of results and the concentration. Everton in the Carabao Cup, Nottingham Forest away
02:10 from home, Walsall away as well in the first game in the European group stages. They've
02:15 got Walsall again this time around.
02:18 Have Birmingham City seen improved performances under Wayne Rooney since he was appointed?
02:23 Yes, I think there's definitely been an improvement at the start. You couldn't get much worse.
02:28 It was just Gunn-Ho having two centre-backs and putting the full-backs so high up the
02:33 pitch you almost formed a front five. And then one of the centre-halves that was back,
02:38 one of the two, would step up into midfield. So you're left with just Kevin Long at the
02:41 back who's got no pace whatsoever and they were just so open. Now they've gone a little
02:46 bit less Gunn-Ho. They've got one full-back going forward at a time and the centre-backs
02:50 staying back a bit more. Bielik stepping in as maybe a third centre-half at times as well
02:54 from midfield.
02:55 Plenty discussed from the West Midlands this week. It now remains to be seen what the weekend's
03:00 matches will bring for the teams.
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