I don’t really know what happened at Champneys spa resort, I’ll leave the speculation to others. Sufficed to say that the incident was dealt with swiftly, both James Collins and Richard Dunne have been punished and it turns out neither player is fit for this game in any case.
We’ve got more important things to worry about right now, like winning some football games. Starting with Wolves at what could well be a sold out Villa Park tomorrow.
At first glance, Wolves
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One of the worst things any player can do when tasked with taking a penalty is to try something clever and fail spectacularly. Brilliant when it comes off, infuriating for the fans and embarrassing for the player when it doesn’t.
With the pressure on the pitch, even taking a text book penalty isn’t as easy as it looks, but here, working with Adidas, Ashley Young shows us how easy it can be on the training pitch.
YouTube Video
I don’t think he’ll be
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You won’t need me to tell you, you’ll no doubt recognise this team right away, but if not, it’s the starting eleven from the FA Cup 5th round at Eastlands that caused so much anger:
Brad Friedel
Chris Herd
Richard Dunne
Ciaran Clark
Fabian Delph
Michael Bradley
Stiliyan Petrov
Barry Bannan
Nathan Delfouneso
Gabby Agbonlahor
Emile Heskey
Look at it again. They’ve been called “kids”, “reserves”, “B-Team” and much more. Aside from Chris Herd – who had been named in 12 of the 35 match squads before that game by the way
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As you’ll be aware, Barry Bannan has joined Leeds on loan for the rest of the season with the option of an extension should they make the play-offs. Who knows, maybe he’ll end up repeating the trip he made to Wembley with Blackpool last year. There’s probably a quiz question in that if he does.
As ever, not everyone is thrilled by this move and it provides another convenient stick to whack the manager over the head with. Personally, I think
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The debate surrounding the pros and cons of zonal marking versus man marking at set pieces will doubtless rage on, but most of the big teams will continue to use a combination regardless. Indeed, the argument about what constitutes zonal rather than man marking will be no more likely to reach consensus any time soon.
All of that is outside the scope of this post, I’m simply going to go through each of Bolton’s eight corners and translate what I saw
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The mid-week gamble has backfired, the repercussions are obvious. Three goals conceded at set pieces, or second phase set piece, missed chances at the other end, including a sitter or two for Darren Bent and an Ashley Young penalty saved.
Bent should have opened the scoring inside the first five minutes after being sent through brilliantly by Young, but he wasn’t able to dig the ball out from under his own feet and Jaaskelainen snuffed out the chance before he could
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After Manchester, Gerard Houllier names a full strength team today. Luke Young rejoins the team, filling in at left centre back, Fabian Delph retains his place and will partner Reo-Coker in the middle.
Bolton
Aston Villa
22
Jussi Jaaskelainen
1
Brad Friedel
2
Gretar Rafn Steinsson
36
Kyle Walker
31
David Wheater
32
Nathan Baker
5
Gary Cahill
21
Ciaran Clark
4
Paul Robinson
2
Luke Young
14
Kevin Davies
6
Stewart Downing
8
Stuart Holden
20
Nigel Reo-Coker
6
Fabrice Muamba
16
Fabian Delph
10
Martin Petrov
12
Marc Albrighton
15
Daniel Sturridge
7
Ashley Young
9
Johan Elmander
39
Darren Bent
Subs
Subs
1
Adam Bogdan
33
Andy Marshall
17
Ivan Klasnic
8
Robert Pires
7
Matthew Taylor
19
Stiliyan Petrov
27
Lee Chung-Yong
31
Chris Herd
16
Mark Davies
13
Michael Bradley
19
Rodrigo
18
Emile Heskey
25
Marcos Alonso
11
Gabriel Agbonlahor
No, I don’t know what Charlie Sheen has to do with Aston Villa taking on Bolton either, but at least he’s providing some much needed light relief at the moment and having some fun. You remember fun, right? He’s also doing a decent job of making Stephen Ireland look sane. Some achievement, and for that I thank you Charlie Sheen.
He’s also seems to be doing a splendid job of claiming victory from what appears to be a stinging defeat, perhaps
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Eight changes, first starts for Chris Herd and Michael Bradley. It didn’t work, not at all. A routine beating at the hands of a frankly bemused City. A lacklustre and, at times, completely inept performance during the first half deserved the 2-0 half time scoreline. The third goal wasn’t entirely merited, there was a little fight about Villa after the break, but overall it’s probably a fair reflection on City’s superiority.
There was much head scratching before the game when the
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