OK, you could say for the last three months that every game has been vital but on Tuesday Evening we have a league defining meeting with Wigan at the JJB. This obviously is one of our 2/3 games in hand and 6 points behind Spurs in 4th. It does not need me telling anyone just how this game will change the rest of the season for us.
Simply put for me is it
WIN – Top 4 contender for certain and edging towards favourites give our run in after March
DRAW – Not a disaster but makes things difficult
LOSS – We will be out of the race for 4th, it is something we can not afford to happen.
You may not be aware that over the last 6 away league games we have had 5 clean sheets and 11 points. That is a very good record and one that must be extended at Wigan. Problem is we have no idea which Wigan will turn up, the one that beat us, Liverpool and Chelsea or the one that capitulated at Bolton.
MON has indicated he may rotate but we have heard that before. Clearly there is a case for Young instead of Cuellar from an attacking point of view but would we really drop anyone else for a vital game ? Gabby will start and to the annoyance of many I think it WILL BE Heskey who will be starting with him.
Apart from that, usual team eh ?
Just got to win the bloody game !!
Aston Villa News 24/7
I’m not sure its that simple that we are out if we lose but It will make things very difficult. If we win we get points on the board while the others have to watch (finally) and gain a bit of a psychological edge. Not that it matters, but then pundits from the BBC etc will recognize that we still exist (the number of times i’ve heard “Liverpool losing will be great news for man city and spurs who are chasing for the top 4″ is a bit of a joke really). O’Neill needs to start playing Luke Young – the number of times Cuellar seems to be on the ball in a game is ridiculous! It limits us a lot going forward Carlos is a great defender but about as technically gifted as a goldfish.
Another must is a Gabby-Carew partnership. Heskey has offered little to nothing all season and continues to do so whilst Carew plays incredibly every 1 in 3 or 4 matches which is a better option surely. I detest watching Carew and Heskey play TOGETHER – no invention just confirming the long ball stereotype and easy for defenders to work out.
i think if agbonlahor and heskey are put on insted of carew and agbonlahor we should sing the john carew song throughout the whole game just to force oneill to put him on (we can effect his choices u know and its either that or watch heskey do his usual(nothing)
It will probably be another bore draw .. and we will be told to be happy because we are still undefeated in 2010 and have Wembley games coming up . I think Capello has finally worked out that Heskey is hopeless but give Martin another 5 years and he will work it out as well .
If you say that defeat in this game knocks us out of the race for fourth then, by extension, defeat in any game effectively knocks us out of that race (which I think is a fairly accurate assessment). At the moment we are looking very tired, very jaded, running on empty. It is huge credit to our defenders that we arent taking the defeats our overall performance levels are deserving, but we cant keep that up forever. Just before the Arsenal game I said I’d be happy with sixth, still stand by that. Dont think we’ll get the 20-25 points we need to come fourth
“At the moment we are looking very tired, very jaded”
I see no evidence of that PB, we played a very physical side who used every trick under the sun to unsettle it, we stuck to our guns and in the last 15 minutes created chances
I definitely agree with ‘Avillian136′ ! We NEED Carew starting every game. Heskey is a waste of space – maybe useful to see games out – like he did against Wigan.
http://myavfc.wordpress.com/2010/03/05/emile-heskey-conman-extraordinaire-2/ Emile can’t even help other forwards!
Big, big win at the DW though – those are the games which we need to win if we are challengers (and it looks like we are). For the first time this season – I fancy our chances – Spurs will fade, Pool might run out of games, City are inconsistent.
http://myavfc.wordpress.com/2010/03/10/and-the-boys-go-marching-on/ I devised a table comparing each team’s run ins – and with City’s slip up at Sunderland, we’re looking good (So far!).