Perhaps the fact that Chelsea will be without Alex, Benayoun, Drogba and Lampard helped, but Carlo Ancelotti has played his hand and told us who will be starting at Villa Park tomorrow:-
“The line-up will be Cech, Ferreira, Ivanovic, Terry and Cole, Ramires, Essien and Mikel, strikers Kakuta, Malouda and Anelka.”
Still a decent side of course and I’m not going to get carried away by the lack of Drogba, he watched from the bench at Stamford Bridge and Chelsea did OK
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I watched, or attempted to watch, three games of football yesterday and didn’t see any goals. Perhaps it was fortunate that I was unable to see the England Under 21s a little earlier in the day, but congratulations to them for securing their place in next year’s European Championships in Denmark with a goalless draw in Romania.
Given his age and talent, it’s remarkable that Ashley Young was making a debut of sorts as last night was his first start
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Ash was handed press conference duties in the England camp today and spoke about his desire to cement a place in the national side and his enjoyment playing in his new, more central role at Villa.
In other England news, the Under 21 squad have just touched down in Romania minus Marc Albrighton who has returned to Villa for treatment to an unspecified injury.
[If the video doesn’t appear above, it can be seen here]
I wouldn’t normally want to drag up old batterings from the past, but this game at Highbury contained a slightly unusual incident. With the game at 4-0, Nigel Spink was injured in a challenge with Kevin Campbell – interesting to note Brian Moore’s keenness to exonerate Campbell of any blame, not sure that would be the case with a similar tackle today – and without a substitute goalkeeper available, David Platt takes over between the sticks.
Campbell and Alan Smith
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I know most of the readers who stop by the blog regularly are cool cats and will get the headline reference straight away, but just in case you’re one of those awful squares, it’s a nod to the now infamous ‘Double Rainbow’ video made even more popular by the Auto-Tune the News folk.
It remains something of a meme in my household and I’ll never miss an opportunity to respond to two barks from my dog at the back door, for
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The FA have just released this fascinating “Tunnel Cam” video giving a glimpse behind the scenes in the build up, during and after England’s 2-1 victory over Romania Under-21s at Carrow Road last night. Nice to see Albrighton and Delfouneso looking relaxed and chatty as they exited the dressing room before kick off.
Both Villans started on the bench, but Albrighton came on in place of Utd’s Tom Cleverley for the last 15 minutes with the game tied at 1-1
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The Premier League have announced a raft of fixture changes over Christmas and New Year, several involving Villa:-
Liverpool, Anfield – moved from Sat 4th December to Mon 6th December, 8pm kick off.
Tottenham, Villa Park – December 26th, kick off now at 5.30pm.
Chelsea, Stamford Bridge – moved from Sat 1st January to Sun 2nd January, 1.30pm kick off.
Gérard Houllier probably won’t mind the two week break in the domestic fixture schedule as he continues to settle in, but he will be without several key players:-
Ashley Young and Stephen Warnock were called up to the England squad for Tuesday’s European Qualifier against Montenegro at Wembley.
Marc Albrighton and Nathan Delfouneso are with England Under 21s ahead of the play-off against Romania for next year’s European Under 21 Championship in Denmark. The first leg is at Carrow Rd on
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Instead of any tactical analysis in this Statshack, I thought I’d share something I was looking at ahead of this game: our record at White Hart Lane over the last few seasons.
The table below shows both teams’ complete and incomplete passing numbers which, of course, is the basis for “Completed Pass Share”. I’ve also included the possession figures and then further combined the two percentages to form what I’m calling “Game Share”. What I’m trying to achieve is
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