Obviously I welcome any new signings, but after seeing Downing make his debut, I feel we have a very strong squad. What are your opinions? A world class striker who can finish properly would be top on my list.

R x

Petrov is back from suspension, but Collins looks doubtful again as he was in pain at the end of training. Dunne may not play after the two grueling games against France and the obvious heartbreak that came from the hands of Henry. Literally.

My predictions are a Villa win, but its going to be tough, very very tough.

Match report after the game.

R x

We are in the middle of a bunch of away games, as well as a hectic schedule, it was nice to see MON make a different change from the usual Heskey on for Carew, or Carew on for Heskey, may his hand was forced due to the injury of Milner, but it’s still nice to see a different squad from the usual, and it paid off with a goal straight after the second half kick off.

Now, the heavy schedule would suggest we need to mix it up a bit, MON likes playing the same squad week in, week out, but we do have a bit of depth now, and a change could be for the good. We have gone a bit stale, especially in front of goal, maybe the youngster Delph could mix things up a bit, or maybe NRC could come back in, Sidwell seemed to be lacking a bit. Warnock did extremely well, he pushed forward on the overlap and that’s what we need, Ashley came back into form as well, and Abonglahor used his pace well as always.

Our game in hand is to be played Wednesday, against West Ham, a difficult game in its own right, but then we’ve got Bolton three days later, I surely wouldn’t want to be MON right now, and I’m unsure as to Milner’s injury.

A win against West Ham would boost the lads confidence for Bolton, but we need maximum points to keep up the pressure on 4th place, which our main contenders at the moment seem to be Man City, with Spurs close behind. I wont mention Liverpool.

Rx

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Team news is as expected, should have the same squad available we had at Villa Park last week, unsure whether MON will play a 4-4-2 again, or go with the 4-5-1, really thought it was gonna be our downfall last week playing the 4-4-2 against a club like Chelsea, but what do I know. Wolves away is a completely different kettle of fish, but we need goals, something we are lacking this season, we’ve only let in 7 goals all season, but our goal difference is the lowest of all the top clubs. This game could be great for Carew (or dare I say it Heskey) to get a couple on the score sheet, It’s a wide pitch, Young and Milner should enjoy the width and be able to put some great crosses in for our big guys up front to get a hold of.

My prediction is 2-0 to Villa, but I would love to see us push a 3 or 4-0 and show our rivals we’ve got the attack to go with our rock solid defence.

R x

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Well there it is, not quite my original prediction of 2-0 but certainly a fantastic scoreline, and thoroughly deserved. I ventured up to Villa Park with my best mate Nick, and I’m still smiling now watching Match of the Day. Was a cracking game, I’m really pleased with our new look defence, we are really working as a team, we defend as a team, attack as a team, its fantastic to see. Dunne and Collins play like they’ve been playing together for years!

We worked hard, very hard, especially Abonglahor, Petrov and Milner (as always!) they all covered a lot of ground and helped out the defence a number of times. My only gripe with the team today is with Ashley Young, tremendous last season but lacking in this one. Countless times he either lost the ball, failed to cross, failed to shoot when on the edge of the box in acres of space and even failing to back up the attack a couple of times, once I remember Warnock pushing forward with Young walking in his own half. But saying that, he did put in a few great balls, and of course assisted both goals from the corner flag, just a little bit more effort needed Young, take a leaf from Milner’s book. Carew should always get a mention, but I should be writing about Villa’s third goal here, because he should of buried a brilliant move from Young to Milner to Carew, but it went straight over Cech’s goal.

Not taking anything away from Chelsea, they played some fantastic football, and really put the pressure on us in the second half, this certainly wasn’t an easy win, but that just makes the victory that little bit sweeter.

This result proves we are genuine Top 4 contenders, but looking at the table, there are a few more contending for that spot, its gonna be a close one. But bring it on, we’re ready for ya!

In my opinion Heskey is past it, Capello doesn’t have unlimited options up front, but he certainly has better options than Heskey, Abonglahor for one, not to mention the likes of Defoe, Cole, Crouch and even Owen!

For Villa this couldn’t be better news, I remember reading a statistic which stated that during his time on the pitch, Villa have only scored 5 goals, and without him on the pitch scored over 20. Maybe this will put Heskey in MON’s bad books and he wont play him, we have a much much much better striker in John Carew, who actually scores goals and makes a difference on the pitch, so lets sell up and buy someone who can compete with Abonglahor for a starting place.

R x

Follow me on Twitter : http://twitter.com/StagediveRy

Better late than never then, Villa have had a decent start to the season, maybe if MON had pulled his finger out we would of made the key signings before the Wigan game and we would of had a better start to the season, but lets not dwell on the negative. We now have one of the best defense’s in the league (as far as stats are concerned) level with Chelsea with a total of just 6 goals against. Thanks for this go to our completely new back four, Richard Dunne in particular, who has been fantastic since he joined us.

We have depth now, something we haven’t had in recent years, and when some of our injured players return, MON will really have a tough time deciding the starting eleven. Lets just hope he realises Heskey really isn’t good for the team.

My tickets for the Chelsea match next Saturday came today, and I really cant wait for this one, we have had some good results against Chelsea, lets make it another.

Until next time.

R x

Follow me on Twitter : http://twitter.com/StagediveRy

Villa Park will need to be our fortress this year, isnt it beautiful…

Match Preview After the Jump!

The pre-season ended well for MON and his men. They went on and won the Peace Cup after a penalty shoot-out against Juventus (with some superb goalkeeping by my boy Guz) and defeated Fiorentina at home 1-0. They also went out and signed Habib Beye and Fabian Delph. Habib is a versatile defender and Villa got him on the cheap. In my last post I also called for him to be signed, so that makes me happy Fabian Delph looks to be quite a prospect and he should blend in well with our talented youngsters. He should get a great chance, especially with the questionable availability of Stiliyan Petrov. In addition, I think the youngsters will definitely get looks tomorrow, with some of them seeing significant time after particularly impressive pre-seasons.

Wigan has had a disappointing offseason so far, with both their manager and some key players departing for greener pastures. Their defense is still relatively intact and they will bunker down and play as physical as ever. Chris Kirkland is a solid keeper and I predict he will have to be at his best as Villa will lay siege to his net. With all of this being said, I can’t look beyond us for this game. Wigan are one of the favorites to go down this season and I think starting against them at Villa Park will be a great way to begin the year. Here is my predicted lineup:

-Friedel (although Guzan has been great and I could see him here too)-

-Lichaj, Davies, Cuellar, N. Shorey-

-Reo-Coker-

-Milner- -*Petrov- -A. Young-

-Gabby- -Heskey-

* If Petrov can’t go, I would like to see Sidwell here but it could be Gardner too.
Also, I think Reo-Coker or Gardner could slide back into the RB spot if MON is not completely ready to throw Lichaj into the fire.

Well there we go folks! I will be watching the game and if I can figure out how to do the live blog thingy, maybe I will get that going for some of the big matches.
!!TOM HANKS SAYS GO VILLA!!

Liverpool – 22nd – Away
Fulham – 29th – Home
Birmingham – 12th September – Away
Portsmouth – 19th September – Home

Mixed reactions from myself, quite a tough opening to the season, but definitely should be action packed. Last season we managed to get 3 points from these same games, (apart from Birmingham) so we really need to do better this season. Lets see who MON brings in.

R x

The first goal was an absolute shocker all round, it came against the run of play, and I still have no idea what Milner could of possibly been thinking when he passed the ball straight into Friedels hands, and I still have no idea how we let United score from the resulting free kick.

Don’t get me wrong, I’m not being bitter about the whole thing, I thought we showed some of the spark that we used to have at the beginning of the season, we played an absolute blinder, and if we were facing any other team than United, we would of taken 3 points easily.

Looking at the big picture now, the rest of the games on our schedule are do-able, if we play like we played on Sunday, and with Abonglahor back on the score sheet, we should be able to take a few points. Everton is the next match, which is arguably the hardest match left, and will be a real test, but with Arsenal’s heavy schedule, and Manchester United, Liverpool and Chelsea left to play, fourth place for Villa is certainly NOT out of view.

R x