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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Charles N’Zogbia’s well taken opener was cancelled out by a rare Ashley Young free kick during a first half which threatened to boil over, Emile Heskey providing much of the heat, but the second half failed to live up to expectations. Neither side can feel aggrieved with an equal share of the spoils.
It was a strange game. Wigan started the livelier, better organised side. Villa’s early response mostly coming from an industrious Kyle Walker looking to exploit space down the
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It’s the penultimate home game of the season and the opportunity to make our future in the Premier League a mathematical certainty against a Wigan side that are fighting for their life.
Ciaran Clark is out with hamstring injury picked up in training yesterday, Jean II Makoun is still out with a dead leg and Gabby is unavailable after falling ill overnight.
Charles N’Zogbia passed his late fitness test, but Victor Moses will replace Mohamed Diame in the Wigan side.
Here are the
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Oops! We’ve got an early peek at the new Aston Villa home shirt for the 2011/12 season thanks to a slight SNAFU on the JJB Sports website and… it’s… checked!
There had been strong whispers that the check motif would be a feature again this year, but it’s actually a two-toned effect in the body rather than the claret and blue check trim found on both the home and away 2010/11 shirts.
Other than that, it’s a claret shirt with blue sleeves
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It was 30 years ago today that Aston Villa last won a league title when we were crowned English Champions despite losing our final game in a season that went to the wire.
If you had glanced at the old First Division table on the morning of May 2nd 1981 you’d have seen the top half looking like this:
1980/81
Pld
W
D
L
GF
GA
GD
Pts
Aston Villa
41
26
8
7
72
38
34
60
Ipswich
40
23
10
7
74
38
36
56
Arsenal
41
18
15
8
59
45
14
51
Notts Forest
41
19
11
11
61
43
18
49
West Brom
40
19
11
10
56
40
16
49
Southampton
41
19
10
12
73
54
19
48
Man Utd
42
15
18
9
51
36
15
48
Liverpool
39
15
17
7
59
40
19
47
Tottenham
41
14
15
12
68
64
4
43
Leeds
40
17
9
14
39
45
-6
43
Stoke
41
11
18
12
48
58
-10
40
We were heading to Highbury to take on Arsenal in our final game needing a point to guarantee the
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The killer habit of losing points from winning positions returned with a vengeance today after we somehow conspired to lose to a ten man Baggies side that were there for the taking. Once again, it’s the same old story of failing to capitalise on opportunities at one end and then being punished by momentary lapses of concentration at the back.
It started off in encouraging fashion when Abdoulaye Meite bizarrely turned Stewart Downing’s cross into his own net inside the first
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It’s been an interesting week with Gerard Houllier being discharged from hospital and Barry Bannan returning from his loan at Leeds. Here’s how caretaker Gary McAllister is going to take on West Brom in the penultimate away game of the season.
The only change to the starting XI is Gabby in for Heskey, but there are three changes to the bench with Bannan, Bradley and Delph coming in. Unsure on the status of Heskey or Albrighton at this stage.
EDIT: Marc Albrighton
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