This is it folks. The last friendly warm-up game before the new Premiership season kicks off on August 15th when Wigan Athletic visit Villa Park. Fiorentina are a good side to finish pre-season against. They’ll provide decent opposition and allow Martin O’Neill to get a good feel for how his men can perform against both Wigan and Villa’s second competitive opponent of the season; Rapid Vienna.

Fiorentina will be playing in the Champions League this season courtesy of finishing fourth in Serie A last time out. Although they were level on points with Genoa, behind on goal difference, they were classified ahead because of head-to-head count back.

Like Arsenal, they join the competition in the Fourth Round Qualifying and are drawn against Sporting from Portugal – the team that managed to dump McClaren’s Twente out in spectacular injury time fashion. Their 18th August match in Portugal will be their first competitive game of the season – they’ll be looking to give a strong team a work out in this friendly.

They were dumped out of last season’s Champions League at the group stage, well out of touch of Bayern and Lyon. They then dropped into the UEFA Cup in the Round of 32 – the same round Villa famously capitulated in Moscow – and were knocked out by Ajax, Villa’s opponent from the Group Stage.

The picture I’m trying to paint of Fiorentina, based on recent performance, is a team that in competitive circumstances we would need to be very concerned about, but I would be reasonably confident of beating. The result doesn’t matter so much, but in an ideal world we would carry our Peace Cup form into the new season with a decent performance in this game.

I’m far less interested in the Fiorentina side than I am in the side MON puts out. Firstly in goal. Guzan cemented his growing reputation in Spain and there’s a fair call for him to be given a shot as number one. Personally, I rate him highly, I really do, but he’s not quite ready to carry the torch in the Premiership yet. If he’s thrown in too early and has a bad game then the dent in his confidence could set his progression back months. I don’t think he’s realistically expecting to start this season as number one and is willing to take his chances in the cup competitions. If Friedel starts then MON is thinking along the same lines.

At the back, there’s only one interesting position; right back. Bouma isn’t expected to be training properly until the end of August, so Shorey will be left back and that’s fine by me based on his pre-season performances. We have two senior centre backs right now, so they pick themselves, but Curtis and Carlos know that there’s competition for their places coming soon.

But at right back, Eric Lichaj looks an exciting prospect and I can certainly see why we picked him up during the American tour; he’s got a future at Villa Park, no question. However, one weakness I saw consistently during the Peace Cup was how easily he was turned by over committing himself to the tackle. I’m willing to accept that he was often able to get back on terms during the Peace Cup, but he will be eaten alive in the fast pace of the Premiership. You can see why Beye has been brought in and he will probably start.

I’d like to say that the midfield picks itself; Young, Reo-Coker, Sidwell & Albrighton, but we all know that Milner hasn’t played during pre-season and needs to be on the pitch for as much of this game as possible. I’d totally accept the argument that he could play in Sidwell’s position and still give young Marc the wing, but do any of us really expect MON to do something so radical? Of course, there’s the option of a midfield five, which I wouldn’t be opposed to at all, I’d probably favour it actually, but that would require sacrificing a striker and Heskey’s clearly a stalwart. Unfortunately. 4-4-2 it is then.

That said, although the majority of Villa fans feel that we’re short of firepower up front, MON will face a selection headache up front. Heskey’s always going to be in MON’s reckoning, but so, thankfully, is John Carew. So what does he do about Gabby?? Well, that’s why he’s the manager and I can’t wait to see who he picks. We also know that MON is eager to see Delfouneso up front, so I’m expecting him to be given a chance to show what he can bring to the party.

Hopefully we will get to see some more of the youngsters; Lichaj and Albrighton in particular deserve their chance. Clark, Lowry, Herd & Bannon also deserve a run out if MON expects to use them in any great capacity soon – Clark & Lowry in particular.

Of course, I’ve failed to mention Fabian Delph so far. I don’t know, do you see him starting? I’m sure he will play today, MON seems to really like the kid’s attitude and ability, but will he start him? If so, who does he drop? No, I don’t see him starting, but I do see him playing for sure.

This game actually gives MON a chance to try more options than we might have expected prior to the Peace Cup. I’m sure we’re all looking forward to seeing some additional quality brought in, but the kids have surely settled the nerves a little.

After this game, we’re all done. It’s down to the serious business of the Premiership. I’m confident that we will see some significant new faces soon, but this game against Fiorentina may well be forerunner for what we see for most of the month of August. I can’t wait.

Aston Villa vs Fiorentina is at Villa Park on Saturday August 8th, kick off at 3pm.