Aston Villa vs. Tottenham Hotspur: Lineups and live match thread

Happy Spursday, Spursland! Welcome back to Premier League football! It's been forever since Tottenham Hotspur last played. The club will be looking to remove the sour taste from that most recent defeat, at the hands of West Ham, in today's match against Aston Villa. The two clubs have already played once this season, having met in the Carling Capital One Cup back in September. Spurs won that match 4-0, but Villa did field a slightly weakened side.

Today, Tottenham manager Andre Villas-Boas makes a few changes to his squad, which looks like this:

Team - Lloris; Walker, Chiriches, Dawson, Vertonghen; Paulinho, Sandro; Townsend, Holtby, Sigurdsson; Soldado. #THFC

— Tottenham Hotspur (@SpursOfficial) October 20, 2013

Our subs at Villa - Friedel, Naughton, Dembele, Eriksen, Lamela, Lennon, Defoe. #THFC

— Tottenham Hotspur (@SpursOfficial) October 20, 2013

Vlad Chiriches makes his Premier League debut, Sandro gets his first start in the league and Lewis Holtby starts ahead of Christian Eriksen. AVB is really going for a shakeup here, isn't he? Apparently, Danny Rose is still not fit, so Vertonghen slides over to left back. Also, Roberto Soldado is restored to his place in the first XI.

The bench looks very strong, but features two right wingers as Aaron Lennon returns from injury. Nacer Chadli, Spurs only left winger (or at least the only player who has played left wing for most of his career) doesn't make the squad.

Aston Villa, meanwhile, send out this team:

#AVFC: Guzan, Bacuna, Vlaar, Clark, El Ahmadi, Westwood, Luna, Delph, Weimann, Agbonlahor, Kozak. #THFC #AVFCLIVE

— Aston Villa FC (@AVFCOfficial) October 20, 2013

As you can see, there's no Benteke for Villa, which is certainly good news for Spurs, even better news is that the big Belgian doesn't even make the bench (Editor's Note: Apparently Villa changed their mind and Benteke is now on the bench). It looks like Lambert has gone back to playing a 4-2-3-1 after playing five at the back against Manchester City.

The match will kickoff at 4:00 PM local time (11:00 AM ET) from Villa Park and can be seen live on TV in the US on NBC Sports Network, on Sky Sports 1 in the UK, and Sportsnet World in Canada. Please don't link to any illegal streams and make sure that you behave in accordance with the community guidelines. Come on you Spurs!