Albion will target hot Abraham
ASTON VILLA boss Dean Smith says Tammy Abraham will be a marked man in the battle of the Championships gunslingers tonight.
The two top-scoring teams in the division clash when Villa travel just down the road to West Brom and it promises to be a slugfest, with the Baggies having blasted 42 so far and their neighbours just behind on 39.
Abraham, on loan from Chelsea, has been terrorising defences with seven goals in his last four games.
And West Bromwich-born Smith says he is under no illusions that his 21-year-old striker will be high on the opposition’s list of things to take care of.
“With the form he’s in, it would be amiss of them not to try to nullify his threat,” said Smith.
“But we’ve got a lot of firepower all over the place. Our goals are coming from everywhere, so it’s not just all about Tammy.
“Obviously he looks like he’s enjoying his football right now but, with seven goals in four games, he would be.
“He has the potential to play at the very top level. The lad has a bit of everything. He scores with headers, left foot, right foot. He has been spot on.”
The Villa boss added: “This game has got all the ingredients of a thriller – the top two scoring teams in the league going at it.
“We’ve all seen these turn out to be 0-0 after all that build-up, but I don’t think that will happen.
“We’re a threat to anybody but they have players who know where the net is as well – the likes of Dwight Gayle, Jay Rodriguez and Matt Phillips.
“The hardest thing in football is to score goals but neither side appear to have that problem at the moment, so it promises to be a great game.”