Villa's top four mission

Fans and critics alike of the English Premiership often bemoan the lack of competition; ‘big four’ syndrome strikes top divisions all over Europe but none more so, it seems, that the top flight of the home of football. The gulf in class and success between the top four teams in England (namely Manchester United, Chelsea, Liverpool and Arsenal) and the rest of the league is plain for all to see and no team has breached this elite group for some time now.


Martin O’Neill’s Aston Villa, however, seem well placed to do so this season. They go into the halfway point of the season sitting in fourth place, above Arsenal, and only just behind Man Utd in third. Talk of a title charge is premature and unrealistic but the whispers around Villa Park of Champions League qualification appear to be much more forthcoming. O’Neill’s side have been quite superb this season, their nucleus of young English players forming a strong team atmosphere that has seen them propel themselves to such heights to which they now find themselves.



How long can it last? O’Neill is thought of by many as a seriously classy manager and he’ll know not to get ahead of himself. He’ll know that the team he has been building over the last three or so years is probably at it’s peak and this will please him no end. Still, a season is not made on where you are in December. Villa have plenty more to prove to themselves and to the rest of the division if they are serious about breaking the elite this year.



Nevertheless, they have been extremely easy on the eye this season. The 2-2 draw on Boxing Day with Arsenal perfectly illustrated their never say die attitude and belief they've had so far this year. They comprehensively outplayed their illustrious opponents in the first half, striking the woodwork on no less than three occasions. Naturally (apologies for the cynicism), Arsenal then took a two goal lead. Most teams would see that as the crippling blow; Dominate the game and then go two down - can anything be more disheartening in this fair game? Apparently, no-one informed Villa of the usual script as they fought back through a Gareth Barry penalty and then, in the dying moments, grabbed a dramatic late equaliser through defender Zat Knight.

A thrilling performance that encapsulated Villa's undoubted technical ability, even if they couldn't get the win they deserved. Nonetheless, Villa had been proverbially throwing down their credentials nearly all season. A draw with Liverpool, a win away at Tottenham, a point with Manchester United and a fantastic victory at Everton, where they conceded an equaliser in the last thirty seconds of play before shocking everyone and scoring almost immediately from kick off with the last kick of the match. Their players are good, very good, and encouragingly, the majority of them are English. Driven from the middle by Gareth Barry, their attacking might revolves around the pace and genius of Ashley Young, the skill and craft of James Milner and the raw goal-scoring talent of Gabriel Agbonlahor. Surely these four players should be England squad regulars by the time the 2010 World Cup arrives?

For fans up and down, the land it is refreshing to see Villa’s challenge upset the big four. Such an occasion is seldom, probably last seen by Martin Jol’s Tottenham in 2006. They occupied the fourth place most of the season before a final day defeat saw them give up that prized space to fierce rivals Arsenal. Tottenham failed to kick on and achieve subsequently and their challenge has since died out. Now it is Villa’s turn and fans all over the country must be hoping for claret and blue success.


It is hard to dislike Villa at present moment (Birmingham fans aside). They’re easy on the eye with their slick football, they have promising, young English players and they pose a genuine threat to the annoying supremacy of the top four. For fans who have long loathed all the preferential treatment from referee’s, the protection from the FA on disciplinary matters and the general boredom of having only four authentic title contenders, Villa’s challenge is a sharp relief and should be supported by neutrals and all fans across the land.



As for Martin O’Neill, next time the FA are looking for an England manager, surely it must be him.

Swann to ease burden on Panesar?

With England’s test series in India finally due to begin in Chennai, England have named their side in advance. The big news being that the selectors have given a Test debut to spinner Graeme Swann, a regular in the one day squad. Swann, a right arm off-spinner comes in for the injured Stuart Broad and gives England their first all out spin pairing since the last time they visited these shores in 2006, when Panesar himself and Shaun Udal bowled England to victory in Mumbai.

Swann is also a capable batsman, having even opened for his county Nottinghamshire in the past. He therefore fills the number eight void left by Broad but his fans will be hoping he can impress more with the red cherry in hand. His inclusion in the side will be seen as a positive thing as it means that Panesar is not the lone spinning option for captain Kevin Pietersen.

Panesar has been criticised for his lack of progress in the recent year, having made such a impression in the early stages of his career. Shane Warne gave a frank assessment of Panesar saying that he had not played thirty three test matches, rather he had played the same test match thirty three times. One can assume that this was a reference to Panesar’s lack of variation and his samey style of bowling.

He relies greatly on the left arm spinner’s stock ball: curve it in towards the right hander, pitch it on middle or leg stump and spin it away. It can work to devastating effect, as shown by his demolition of New Zealand at Manchester last summer (he took 6-37). However, when the pitch offers little and the batsman are set, he tends to struggle.

Also, he appears to have lost some of his childlike love of the game. Even after pastings at the hands of Australia’s rampant batsman, he still seemed to be enthusiastic about the possibility of a wicket. One can point to tough times at the hands of India, Sri Lanka and South Africa and Monty appears to be less happy with the way his game goes.

Swann could make Monty’s life a whole lot easier. They compliment each other excellently, with the right arm/left arm combination making life difficult for the batsman and forcing him to readjust his thinking. Also, the presence of another spinner will ease the mental burden on Panesar. If your running in, over after over, with two Indian batsman hitting you all over the park, the thought that you’re the only one that can make the ball spin could be an intimidating one.

Swann has shown previous success on Asian conditions, although only in the one day format. His breakthrough in the England side came after a hugely impressive performance in Sri Lanka last year and he impressed to a degree during England’s thrashing by India in the prematurely aborted one day series recently. He has the ability to really spin the ball, possibly more than Panesar does. He’s not going to win the series for England by himself; but his presence in the team will help Panesar and Panesar could be a match winner.

England finally appear to have picked the right balance in their side. Two different styles of spinner and three pace men in Andrew Flintoff, Steve Harmison and James Anderson. It gives the captain options and that is exactly what England will need if they are to achieve anything from this challenging Test series.

(allvoices.com, 2008)

Being put back into place

Whilst perusing through the mailbox on football365.com this fine evening, I found an interesting little post from a disgruntled Southampton fan. It seems an Arsenal fan had written a post the previous day claiming that no other club were in a worse position than his beloved Gooners. Please, have a look:


Is Any Club In A Worse Position?

Okay, just to give an update on a team no-one cares about (apart from me and Mort Snort that is), which is Southampton. We're currently lying 19th in the Championship, four points above the relegation zone. In our yearly results up to July this year we have lost £4.6m. Our overdraft has risen to ridiculous levels, and our turnover has decreased from £21m to £13m. Attendances have dropped from an average of 22,00 to 15,000 due to splits in the fanbase, lack of home wins and most of all, utter laziness and inability to be proper football fans and back the club with money.

On top of this we have an unproven Dutch manager who has got a team with an average age of just under 21 years of age playing lovely flowing football, but with no end product. This has led to several of our players being potentially whipped away in January by the Premiership big boys, with Lallana off to Spurs (If he could shoot he'd be a world beater), Andrew Surman off to Stoke to join the Saints old boys, and Morgan Schneiderlin off to Arsenal (this boy is something special) where we will have to try and unearth the next superstar from our academy, who'll probably be like eight years old. Add to this the fact that allegedly Rupert Lowe is picking our team week in week out, the fact we need to get rid of Rudi Skacel, Stern John, Grzegorz Rasiak and Jason Euell off the books to give ourselves a chance of staving off administration, and you'll realise what a hole our club is in.

Is there anyone else whose clubs are in a worse position. From the sounds of things there is a team in London who are 4th in the Premiership with a few injuries, whose 60,000 paying fans are booing one of their players. Gosh. I wouldn't want to be them...

Simon Goddard, SFC


Perspective can be a right slap in the face sometimes.