Five days ago, I wasn’t much looking forward to Saturday, but how quickly things can change; all it took was £24m! Seriously though, it’s amazing what a boost the acquisition of Darren Bent has provided. To everyone, fans and players alike it would seem; Gabby, Ash & James Collins all waxing lyrical about Bent joining the team.

It’s also given Gerard Houllier a massive boost in the eyes of many fans who were doubting him, but ultimately it will still come down to results, as always. Perhaps the overwhelming fear of relegation, which was reaching pandemic levels, will now at least be under control. For a while anyway, we still need those results.

After me: deep breath, deep breaths.

The game against City has become quite enticing; a late kick off under the Villa Park floodlights, a surge at ticket office and City bringing their own big money striker in £27m Edin Džeko, acquired from Steve McClaren’s Wolfsburg after bagging 100 goals in 171 appearances.

Džeko made his City debut against Wolves last weekend and seemed to slot into Mancini’s side quite comfortably in what was something like a 4-1-3-2 system, Džeko favouring the left channel and Carlos Tevez working the right. The midfield was made up of Gareth Barry and Adam Johnson sandwiching Yaya Touré with Nigel De Jong sat in front of the back four.

City are obviously extremely dangerous, but also vulnerable at the back. It will be interesting to see how Mancini sends his side out this time with Houllier no doubt desperate for his side to give a good account of themselves after the most woeful display seen in some time at Eastlands.

The positive vibe seems to be back at Villa Park with a vengeance right now, it’s important to capitalise on that with a strong performance at the very least. I think most fans would happily settle for a draw and then look to Tuesday for a win, but even a defeat could be tolerated if the team play well. To a point anyway.

Most fascinating, for me anyway, is how Houllier intends to fit Darren Bent into his side, especially in relation to Gabby. It has to be said, over the last several seasons, Gabby hasn’t spent much time on the bench; if he’s been fit he’s generally played.

I have a suspicion that seniority might play trumps and we could see Bent playing ahead of Gabby, Ash and Downing, in that order left to right, and Marc Albrighton being the one to make way. Given Marc’s slightly less than impressive ability in defensive duties, against a side of City’s quality, I would suggest that’s the way to go.

I appreciate that strikers out wide and inverted wingers won’t be everyone’s cup of tea, but there is a method to the apparent madness. Allowing Gabby to operate in the space the flank often provides uses his pace well. Both he and Downing, encouraged to cut in onto their stronger foot, may well set up the opportunities that Bent can thrive on, more so than the traditional approach of getting round the outside and swinging one in from the byline. Although Bent isn’t bad in the air either to be perfectly fair.

We shall see, we shall certainly be without one or two players though…

John Carew

John Carew has completed his expected move to Stoke City for the remainder of the season on loan. If he can put in the effort, he’ll do well there, his height and physical presence will definitely be an asset in Tony Pulis’ side.

It’s a shame that his Villa career seems to be ending with a bit of a whimper, if he could have put in the effort he could have left as a true Villa legend rather than fans’ favourite. Still, I’ll have many happy memories, chief among them his brace against the Blues in the 5-1 destruction at Villa Park.

All the best to John for the future.

Jean Makoun

Jean Makoun joined up with the Villa squad for the first time today after his work permit was cleared. He’s unlikely to be involved against City, but will be in the frame for Wigan on Tuesday. He’s been handed the number 17 shirt which did belong to Moustapha Salifou, but Makoun wears it in memory of countryman Marc Vivian-Foé who you may recall died suddenly and tragically at the age of 28 due to a heart condition.

Speaking of Salifou, Talksport claimed that he’s another player on the verge of a loan exit, the destination wasn’t speculated, but they did state that it would be with a view to sell later. If he’s not sold this month, he won’t be sold later though, his contract expires in June; too bad Talksport are not concerned with such minor details when they write their stories.

The club have said via the official Twitter account that Salifou will get a new squad number when the next squad list is submitted on February 1st. We’ll see.

There were some reasonably strong rumours floating around the north east earlier which suggested that Stephen Ireland might be about to join Newcastle on loan for the rest of the season, but at the time of writing nothing substantial seems to have surfaced.

Regular readers know that rumours generally get what Martin O’Neill would describe as ‘short shrift’ round these parts, but this was one of those whispers that had a flavour of credibility to it, although I can’t really say why. Clearly his “knee injury” will keep him out of contention for Villa, but I wouldn’t rule out a miraculous recovery and loan move somewhere this month.

And finally, Gerard Houllier has had many interesting things to say in today’s press conference, especially in relation some of the noises emanating from Sunderland, specifically from Steve Bruce, but I think that’s worthy of its own post.

We’ll leave this post focused on the game tomorrow, I come back to where I started; I’m really looking forward to it and it’s the complete opposite of what I was feeling earlier in the week. I’d forgotten what that felt like. It’s pretty sweet actually.