Clarke backs Villa chief

Steve Clarke feels West Brom they will face an Aston Villa side on an uphill curve as they start to embrace the ideas of Paul Lambert.

Clarke and Lambert were briefly team-mates nearly a quarter of a century ago at St Mirren and will now cross swords in the dugout for the first time at Villa Park. Albion have made a flying start under Clarke with 10 points from the opening five games of the campaign. But Clarke has noted the gradual improvement in Villa's fortunes including the 4-2 midweek win at Manchester City in the Capital One Cup. He said: "We've had a good start and Villa have had an okay start. You can't say they've had a bad start. "They've had enough decent results to show what Paul is trying to do there is starting to work. Their trend is upwards. I've watched a few of their videos leading into this match and you can see the team is starting to play the way Paul would like them to play."