Aston Villa are back in action this afternoon with a home clash against Norwich City in the Premier League.

The Villans' previous outing saw them pick up a point at Leicester thanks to a rather uninspiring 0-0 draw which saw just five shots on target between both teams throughout the 90 minutes. That result means that Steven Gerrard's side have now failed to win any of their last five league games.

Now that the Midlands club are back on home turf and set to take on Dean Smith's Norwich, who look destined for relegation, this could be a great opportunity for Villa to pick up a win against the manager under whom they began the current campaign.

On the chalkboard

One man who didn't start against the Foxes but we feel should be in the Villa starting XI this time around is Emiliano Buendia.

Villa signed the Argentine from today's opponents in last summer's transfer window for a club-record fee of £33m. Since then, the 25-year-old has appeared in 29 league games, scoring two goals and providing four assists along the way.

To further highlight how useful an attacking player he has been for the club, only John McGinn (80) and Douglas Luiz (60) have racked up more shot-creating actions than the former Norwich star (59) in the current campaign. Furthermore, Buendia has a higher number of goal-creating actions (nine) than any of his team-mates.

Even from a defensive point of view, the £82k-per-week attacker has been particularly prominent for Villa this season, as only four team-mates have made more tackles than him.

This explains why Gerrard labelled the Argentina international a "warrior" and a player who "puts his body on the line" for his team.

With the summer recruit not starting a game for Villa since their 1-0 defeat against Arsenal over a month ago and not delivering a goal contribution since their 2-1 defeat to West Ham United just before that, Buendia will be desperate to get back on the pitch today and make an impact.

If Gerrard does give the attacker the chance to shine from the beginning against Norwich, he certainly has what it takes to give his old club and former manager Smith some real nightmares with his ability throughout the pitch.

In other news: Gerrard can land his own Pogba as Villa plot bid for “impressive” £107k-p/w machine