Any regular readers of this blog will know the high esteem I have over James Milner. I wrote this entry back in June and every word is coming true and yesterday just proved once again to me that Milner will go all the way.

Every Villa fan knows how hardworking the guy is, knows how honest he is and knows he would always give 100% in a claret and blue shirt. Yesterday was no exception, in fact the positional change (yes he can play everywhere, Milner can do what he likes) seems to suit us and Villa down to the ground !

For anyone who watched the first 20 minutes before the injuries and I will come to Bullard later, they would have seen 20 minutes of pure football (no hoofing), controlled aggression and some fantastic one touch passing and movement. We could and should have been at least 3-0 u and in the end we settled for that as a final score

Clearly it is obvious just how we want to play with Downing and this allows Milner to be the pivotal player between midfield and attack and someone we have missed since the days of Merson. Some of the passing he did was sublime and the contribution for the 2nd one (Thanks Sidwell) was almost the perfect box to box player, I am sure within a year he will be scoring at least 10 goals a season and be an England regular and he will be winning trophies for us.

A word to all Villa fans on how proud I was to the reception we gave to Jimmy Bullard. Jimmy is the player we all want to be, no bling, no celeb girlfriends, but an honest funny working class lad. I wish Jimmy all the best and hope it is not as serious as it looked and he felt.