Fabio Capello has named a 26-man squad to take on Switzerland in the next Euro 2012 qualifier at Wembley on June 4th and Ashley Young, Stewart Downing and Darren Bent are all included. As is Kyle Walker, although he’s no longer technically a Villan, he more than deserves a mention here.
In fact, Walker’s also included in Stuart Pearce’s confirmed 23-man squad for the European Under-21 Championships in Denmark next month along with Marc Albrighton and Nathan Delfouneso, who definitely are
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Wow. What a day! The game wasn’t all that thrilling, but Liverpool have been beaten at Villa Park for the first time in 13 years thanks to a superb strike from Stewart Downing and, with the other results today, we end up finishing in 9th place. A top half finish, on top of the Midlands once again despite our worst performance over 38 games for five years.
And… if that wasn’t enough, Birmingham City were relegated, initially thanks to hapless Wolves
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This is it then; the last game of the season. It might something of a dead rubber for us, although I’d like to think the players would be keen to finish the season on a high note. Liverpool fans will be hoping for a win at Villa Park and a loss for Tottenham at White Hart Lane. So, the exact opposite of us then.
Here are the confirmed starting line-ups:
Aston Villa
Liverpool
1
Brad Friedel
25
Pepe Reina
36
Kyle Walker
38
John Flanagan
29
James Collins
23
Jamie Carragher
5
Richard Dunne
37
Martin Skrtel
2
Luke Young
6
Fabio Aurelio
16
Fabian
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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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