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 aren’t on a bad little run of form at the moment, taking eight points from their last five games lifting themselves from the foot of the table and briefly out of the bottom three. Not bad considering those matches included taking on Man Utd, Arsenal and Spurs.

However, their form away from home remains less impressive, ranking 18th in the league based on their last five away fixtures. A point at the Hawthorns rescued a run of sequential away losses at West Ham, Man City, Bolton and Arsenal, but it took an injury-time equaliser from loanee Carlos Vela to prevent Wolves taking all the points.

For me, their stand-out player this season has to be left winger Matt Jarvis, although Jamie O’Hara – on loan from Tottenham with a view to a permanent move – looks to be settling in to life in the Midlands and now provides the creative force in the middle.

What I like about Jarvis, besides his ability, is his consistency. Not only has he got the pace and tenacity to beat full-backs to the byline, but he delivers a decent cross more often then not. This will be a good test for Kyle Walker.

Although we have another selection crisis at the back with Luke Young, Collins, Dunne all injured and Ciaran Clark suspended, we do at least have the superb news that Carlos Cuellar is fit again to enjoy. He’ll help Walker out, but won’t want to stray too far from young Nathan Baker.

It will be a tricky game for Carlos to manage, but as the senior player at the back it will be up to him to organise another makeshift back-line which will presumably have to feature Fabian Delph once more at left back.

Protecting the back-line

Wolves have taken a few unsuspecting scalps this season, if I were Houllier, I’d pay attention to what Kyle Walker has said recently about the communication he enjoys with Stewart Downing and play the two of them together on the right to take as much out of Wolves’ main threat as they can.

Formations. Click to enlargen.

The most interesting selection will be in the middle with the return of Jean II Makoun, a player we all know by now has the range of passes in his toolbox to unlock a stubborn Wolves defensive unit of Karl Henry and Nenad Milijas sat in front of Richard Stearman and Christophe Berra.

For me, Makoun is the key man for Villa tomorrow. He’s the one that brings the missing ingredient of true quality right in the centre of the park where we need it most.

I’m looking for Reo-Coker to partner by Makoun as he can provide the road block that forces Wolves to use their width and can keep track of O’Hara and any late runs he might make.

Hopefully we can get our noses in front and force McCarthy to chase the game which more than likely will mean sacrificing Milijas for Sylvan Ebanks-Blake. That’s when I’d counter by introducing Albrighton and his fresh legs to eat up the extra space in midfield.

Score one more

With an obviously fragile back-line in a side that’s leaked goals all season, I wouldn’t put any money on Brad Friedel keeping a clean sheet tomorrow. Wolves are capable of scoring, we’re more than capable of getting undone. Especially at set pieces. We know this.

So, it’s once again going to be about grabbing every opportunity created by the throat – I’m looking at you Darren Bent and Ashley Young – and making sure that we simply score more than Wolves. When you break it down, that’s all football is anyway.

I’ve got a feeling that Ash will play with a little fire in his belly, with a point to prove and if I were forced to put money on anything tomorrow, it’s Ash taking any penalties that might crop up. I’d back him to score it too.

There, I got through this without saying “must win”!

D’oh!