I’m sick of the sight of Blackburn Rovers. We’ve played them eight times in the last two years; four times in the cups, four times in the Premier League. Villa have a 100% record in the cups, but Blackburn have won the last three league meetings.

It’s the 4th round of the FA Cup, form largely goes out the window, but for what it’s worth, Villa are obviously riding high on back to back league wins for the first time this season. Blackburn haven’t exactly gone off the rails in the manner I expected (or hoped if I’m being honest) after sacking Sam Allardyce back in December, but Steve Kean’s record during his seven league games in charge is two points worse than Allardyce’s final seven league games.

Kean brings his side to Villa Park off the back of a 2-0 win over West Brom which lifted them to 7th in the table, just three points ahead of Villa, surely signalling hope that the FA Cup is not the only path to Europe left for us.

As for team selection, Houllier has already said that he’ll need to rotate somewhat to negoiate a way through a busy schedule. Darren Bent will not be available as he’s cup tied which will probably mean Emile Heksey gets an opportunity to lead the line again.

Barry Bannan’s exclusion from the 18 man squad at Wigan raised one or two eyebrows, but I’m not entirely convinced that he’s done enough this season to be regarded as an automatic inclusion in any squad. He has been included in 27 of the 30 match day squads this season, his last start being in the previous round of the FA Cup at Sheffield. I’d expect to see him involved tomorrow.

Kyle Walker is available again and will start, Jean Makoun is a doubt with a slight thigh strain sustained at Wigan. Otherwise, it’s a fully fit squad and Houllier’s happy to have options at his disposal:

Gerard Houllier
But now, apart from Luke and Stephen, virtually everyone is fit. So this is an ideal situation for a manager because everyone contributes to the success.

I don’t think you can play with intensity, effort and demand in every game. Maybe you can, but at some stage you will pay for that so this is my role to also make sure we get enough quality and freshness in the squad being involved in everything we do.

It is not only rotating the players, it is also the fact you trust everyone to do the job, whatever it is. If this had been a league game, I would have done exactly the same. I want to keep everyone on their toes. I want to keep everyone working hard for places in the team and also contributing to the welfare of the team. It is better to rotate when things are going right too. You could see that.

On paper, all things being equal, this has to look like a great opportunity to make it into the last 16 and then, who knows? There are a number of other all-Premiership ties this weekend, some big guns will inevitably be knocked out of the competition, another trip to Wembley doesn’t seem as outrageous as it did a couple of weeks ago.

FA Cup 4th Round Fixtures

Of course, not wanting to get ahead of ourselves, first we must get past Blackburn which will be far from straightforward. Roque Santa Cruz has rejoined on loan for the rest of the season and they’ve also grabbed Jermaine Jones on loan from Schalke, a player I think could fit in very well, but sadly Ronaldinho managed to resist the lure of Lancashire.

Kick off is at the slightly odd time of 1pm, Saturday.