Aston Villa will be looking to end 2017 on a high today as the Villans travel to the north east to take on Middlesbrough in the Championship.

It's been an okay season so far for the men from Villa Park but they will feel as though they should be slightly higher in the table than they are.

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Indeed, recent poor form has left them struggling for confidence and outside of the top six and so they'll be aiming to try and turn that around with a tricky game against the Teessiders.

If they lose, of course, you get the feeling that quite a few fans will be on Steve Bruce's back but ahead of the game Bruce has said that an improved performance is going to be put in from his players:

A lot of fans on Twitter aren't buying that, though, and so let's take a look at what has been said so far: