I don’t know about you, but I’m pretty excited about the potential attacking force of the four players above and I’m optimistic that we’re going to see this foursome regularly celebrating scoring in front of cheering fans.

Stewart Downing, as the newest player, is the biggest unknown, but he looked good as a provider in his brief cameo at the end of the game at Burnley. He put in an impressive performance for the reserves before scoring on his full debut at Fratton Park in the 4-2 Carling Cup victory over Portsmouth last night.

We know he’s a natural left side player, but like the other three, he has the versatility to move into the middle or just behind the strikers.  I think he’s capable of providing the missing ingredient that will release the other three to do what they do best.

Gabby Agbonlahor has bulked up during the summer and seems more willing to make a nuisance of himself, defending from the front when he’s not involved in the game. He’s also displaying a willingness to look up for fellow players in the final third much more than last season. Last season he scored 12 goals and made 5 assists in the Premiership. He’ll do better this year, keep your eye on his assists in particular.

MON has frequently asked Gabby to play a role as an attacking right sided midfielder and he’s always looked dangerous, but now he seems to have an added intelligence to his game. He’s in with a decent shout of a plane ticket to South Africa and will want to make a big impression on the England manager during the rest of the season.

Ashley Young is our most creative and dangerous player. We know it, so does every opponent we come up against and they give him the appropriate attention. I hope he’ll be honest enough to admit that he’s been guilty of wasting decent opportunities with poor deliveries on occasion this season, but he does seem to be regaining what might have been a slight drop in confidence. Perhaps he also needs to gain a little guile and street smarts to deal with being double and triple teamed so often, but he’s showing the right signs.  John Robertson will no doubt be on the case.

The important thing is that he’s shown glimpses of his best form in the last few games and the addition of Stewart Downing may well be the ironic catalyst to set him free. He also needs to remind Fabio Capello why he should be thinking about taking him to South Africa which can only be good for Villa along the way.

Ashley is probably the most versatile attacking player at Villa. Although he’s a right footed player, he’s got enough quality in his left foot that he appears a natural left winger but with the dangerous ability to cut back inside to unleash with his stronger foot. He can obviously play on the right, behind the strike pair or even as a striker himself. He’s got the full toolkit and Villa fans were probably most excited during a period when MON gave him license to play a completely free role, roaming around the pitch destroying the opposition. That’s a weapon that MON knows he always has at his disposal.

James Milner has rightly built up an army of fans. At first he unfairly had his price tag held over his head, but as he’s quickly established himself as the hardest working player in Claret and Blue he’s proved his value beyond all doubt. Like Ash, he’s also guilty of wasting good opportunities with below par deliveries at times, but his work rate means he creates more of those opportunities than a lot of other Premiership players and he actually completes more crosses than he’s sometimes given credit for.

With the addition of Stewart Downing, the question has been asked about whether Milner could push into a more central position and he’s answered positively. Milner and Ash will swap wings for 10 minutes or so almost every game, but lately James has adopted a position in the hole behind the strikers, looking to pick up on loose balls around the box at times. It’s also been interesting to note Ash and Milner effectively exploiting the same channel together, linking up for periods in a lop sided attack that must leave defenders scratching their heads about how to stop the onslaught.

We’ve all seen Milner on the left during brief period, but he’s shown that he can play a dedicated role on that side while wearing the Three Lions shirt and, ironically, at the moment, is probably Ash’s greatest competition to make the squad for South Africa. Stewart Downing will want to say something about that between now and June.

The Four Horsemen

I believe this foursome are the key to Aston Villa terrorizing defenses for the rest of this season, it’s just a matter of how they’re augmented.  MON has the option of using either Heskey or Carew as a second striker alongside Gabby, which leaves only Petrov behind them and that presents it’s own set of weaknesses.

Personally, I think these four lend themselves nicely to employing Petrov and, most likely, Reo-Coker as central, holding midfielders sitting in front of the back four,  Ash, Milner and Downing can tie opponents up in knots playing in constantly different roles in support of Gabby up front alone.

There’s clearly going to be times when either approach will leave us exposed, but fortunately our defense are not too shabby themselves. We shouldn’t over rely on our back four and goal keeper, but I think we’d all like to see Villa approaching more games with the attitude of letting our opponents worry more about us than we do about them. We have the talent and fire power to do this now, I think that’s what frustrates most fans when they witness this talent being pinned back at home by Tottenham.

Next up, we have Hull coming to Villa Park and I’d love to see these four deliver an apocalypse to set a platform for the tough December that lies ahead. If we finish out this year strongly, I’ve a feeling that 2010 is going to be a special year for Aston Villa.