Whilst I thought he had a fantastic game last night, I'd be a bit concerned about Zabba coming up against the pace of Ashley Young at Villa.
Zabba definitely appears to have many of the qualities needed to be a successful Right Back over Micah (better positional sense, far better concentration, gets forward well but also gets back into position quickly not leaving his area exposed, good tackler, not to mention he's an infinitely better crosser of the ball therefore offers more to our forwards), but pace and size are the 2 areas where he's left wanting. I fear Young could have a field day against Zabba as he is pretty slow, therefore I'd be tempted to try Richards out - would be very harsh on Zabba after last night, but I guess Hughes has to pick from the squad to win the game.
If we can keep Young and Agbonlahor quiet, they don't have much else going on as I see it, and we should be able to get a good result. I would play:
GK - Given
RB - Richards
CB - Toure
CB - Lescott
LB - Bridge
RM - Bellamy
CM - de Jong
CM - Barry
LM - Petrov
CF - Tevez
CF - Adebayor
Subs: Taylor, Zabaleta, Sylvinho, Johnson, Ireland, Wright-Phillips, Santa Cruz
Both Ireland & SWP have been below par in recent games, and a game on the bench is probably right - picking players on form
