Friday, 2nd October
It`s confirmed that Steve Sidwell will be back in the squad (and probably the team) for the game on Monday.
Stilyian Petrov ‘urges` the fans to give Gareth Barry a good reception.
It is announced that 19 idiots have been arrested so far in connection with the local derby, and more are to follow. Yeah, if you`re reading this and you got involved in the violence, unless it was absolute unavoidable self-defence – you are a complete and utter idiot, to put it mildly.
Saturday, 3rd October
Saturdays without the Villa are rubbish.
MON (understandably) hits out – does that mean verbally or in the style that NRC is accustomed to? ;o) – at the agent of Curtis Davies for waffling on about his (lack of a) new contract in the press. I don`t think I`d be a very good football agent because I would do silly things like show respect to the football clubs!
The academy lads suffer a rare loss (3-2) to Leicester City. I think the last time they lost was to Leicester as well, who have a very good youth set-up of their own. Ryan Simmonds and Jason Lampkin got our goals.
Sunday, 4th October
Sundays without the Villa that follow a Saturday without the Villa are rubbish too!
Gabriel Agbonlahor is deservedly recalled to the England squad. James Milner and Emile Heskey retain their place, but Ashley Young misses out.
NRC is once again linked with a move to Middlesborough.
Monday, 5th October
Villa 1 – 1 Man City. I`ve done my own report on this in the article entitled, “If only we`d played wellÂ…” so I wont go over it again in too much detail.
A quick summary – I felt that tactically we didn`t help ourselves, and that our of our front 6, only Agbonlahor and Petrov played anywhere near their best.
I believe that a draw was probably the right score overall, and that Richard Dunne was immense. He thoroughly deserved his goal and he won the header against Gareth Barry, who I felt was poor on the night.
I also felt that the booing of Gareth Barry was a bit harsh but again, this has been covered by me and just about everyone else!
Tuesday, 6th October
There is precious little going on today other than the aftermath of the previous evening.
Other than one thing – Isaiah Osborne got arrested today for suspicion of ‘conspiracy to rob`. He was released on bail pending further enquiries. Just a thought; the police were not looking to arrest anyone else, therefore who the hell was he conspiring with?!
Wednesday, 7th October
Isaiah returned to play in the reserves this evening where we drew 1-1 with a strong Wolves side. He played quite well, although it was his sloppy pass that gave away possession leading up to Wolves opener. Craig Gardner (who I thought was superb) got our equaliser following a one-two with his brother Gary. Given the strength of the Wolves side and the fact that we were missing Barry Bannan and Nathan Delfounso I thought it was a good performance where we unlucky not to win over the course of 90 minutes.
The best news of course was the fact that Luke Young and Wilfred Bouma both played 90 minutes. Young is a bit ahead of Bouma and will probably be in contention to play against Chelsea in our first game after the international break. Bouma will take a wee bit longer I will imagine, but it wont be long before he is also pressing for a first team place. Good stuff!
Stan Petrov makes noises about us being able to finish in the top four. I think we CAN, because last year we lost it rather than anyone beating us to it. But it will take one hell of an effort and a fair bit of luck. For instance, Arsenal are already looking stronger this season.
It was also reported that MON has made the ‘top ten rich list` of football managers. Good for him. I wonder if he can lend me a few bobÂ…
Thursday, 8th October
John Carew explains why he was so deep against Man Citeh – he was asked to play that way. Of course, that raises the question of why we didn`t just play a 4-5-1/4-3-3 formation, but I am so tired of discussing this that all I can say is at least it was the plan and not some bizarre performance by the big man, who apparently enjoyed himself as a ‘hard-man midfielder`! Well before the cramp set in, that is!
Gary Cahill talks about his Villa exit. Basically he says that he left because MON couldn`t guarantee him first-team football. Why should any player be guaranteed first-team football? That said, I would have had him in the team over Zat Knight, but, alas, what has happened has indeed happened, and we really all should move on.
So, another week, our first draw of the season (I wonder how many times it has taken until October for that to happen before?) and now an international break. VERY. BIG. SIGH!
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