There are no shortage of complex Aston Villa related situations worth exploring right now, you barely have to look. From the unknown future of the incumbent manager to the past of his litigation happy predecessor coming back like a bad penny. We touched on the Friedel situation this week, which may be taking a turn toward north London, and also his younger compatriot.
We’ve got Nigel Reo-Coker‘s agent bigging him up in every willing media outlet attracting attention from all over
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Brad Guzan wouldn’t have been a name known to many outside of the United States when Martin O’Neill first tried to acquire the keeper’s services from Chivas USA in January 2008. That attempt failed because of work permit rules, but the fact that MON went back for him (successfully) the following summer suggested Guzan was someone worth getting to know.
Since then, we’ve only seen him in first team action during European and domestic cup competitions, save for 26 minutes at
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Brad Friedel turned 40 years old today, so, aside from wishing the big man many happy returns, it seemed like a good excuse to take a glance at our goalkeeping situation now and going forward.
Friedel’s contract expires this summer. We know that Gerard Houllier was actively looking at potential replacements last year, but the gaffer never ruled out the possibility of extending Friedel’s stay. In fact, he said that they’d talk about it in February and come to a decision
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Hands up if you saw that result coming. Hey. You there are the back… put your hand down, you little fibber!
Well, okay, Arsenal have really gone off the boil as this season has lumbered to its conclusion, but I can’t honestly claim to have expected a win today. A draw perhaps. I’d have been delighted with the point that would have finally guaranteed our Premier League survival regardless of other results. Three is exceptionally welcome.
And we can thank Darren Bent.
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It’s the last away game of the season. Here’s the team Gary McAllister is sending out at the Emirates to grab a point or three against an Arsenal side eager to ensure they finish in the top three at least to guarantee themselves a place in the Champions League next season.
Should be interesting tactical battle, it looks like a 4-2-3-1 vs a 4-3-3.
Arsenal
Aston Villa
53
Wojciech Szczęsny
1
Brad Friedel
3
Bacary Sagna
36
Kyle Walker
5
Thomas Vermaelen
29
James Collins
18
Sebastien Squillaci
5
Richard Dunne
28
Kieran Gibbs
2
Luke Young
17
Alex Song
16
Fabian Delph
19
Jack Wilshere
19
Stiliyan Petrov
14
Theo Walcott
20
Nigel Reo-Coker
16
Aaron
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The young lions cruised through the group stage of the Hong Kong Soccer 7’s with the best record of all 16 teams; winning all three games, scoring nine and conceding none in the process. Andreas Weimann and Harry Forrester bagged four each and Jonathan Hogg grabbed the ninth.
You can see the full results from the group stage here.
The top two teams from each group have progressed to the Cup competition quarter finals tomorrow, Aston Villa will face Celtic. The losers
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It’s late, I know, but the Hong Kong Soccer 7’s tournament is kicking off in a little over an hour and I’ve just enough time to bring you up to speed with the fixtures.
The 16 competing teams have been drawn into four groups of four. Each group should contain two local sides and two visiting teams, but Fourway Rangers were included in Group D as a replacement for Etoile FC from Singapore.
Besides Villa, the other visiting teams needing no introduction
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The annual Hong Kong Soccer 7s tournament is taking place this weekend and Aston Villa are once again competing. It’s pleasing to see the official site giving the tournament some coverage this year, so you may already be aware that the squad are currently en route to Hong Kong with Ian Taylor among the travelling party.
It’s a competition we have a pretty rich pedigree in, winning the trophy five times (’02, ’04, ’07, ’08 & ’10) and finishing runner-up in
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I’ve talked for some time now about needing to hit a theoretical safety threshold of 43 points by the 36th game, essentially writing off our last two games against Arsenal and Liverpool. As it happens, West Brom occupy the final position offering mathematical safety today; 13th place with 43 points.
We’ve fallen a point shy and head a group of seven teams capable of suffering relegation. Mathematically speaking. Leading the group, as we do, we’re the least likely to go down
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