Villa Preview: Season decider part 1 of 4 27 January, 2010

We’ve been talking about these next four games for some time now. Aston Villa, Man United, Chelsea and Liverpool. This is a huge test for our squad and I’m eager for the results. We start tonight with a trip to Aston Villa, a side on a high after just reaching their first Wembley final in a decade.

You could argue that the two midweek games that start and end this run of four games against Villa and Liverpool are the easier of the four but they’re still vitally important. Not only can they carry momentum but also any points dropped against the top two can be recovered here.

We need to start with a win tonight. It’s a big ask though, 3 points at Villa Park is no easy feat. We are boosted by the return of Nicklas Bendtner and Samir Nasri but they will only be on the bench. The duo are back and fit again but have only had one full training session; Sunday’s game against Man United is a more realistic target for them. Still though, it’s good to have options on the bench and I wouldn’t be surprised to see both of them make an appearance.

Diaby is out which means Aaron Ramsey will probably start in midfield. I expect Denilson will play defensive midfield but he has struggled there so I wouldn’t mind giving the young Welshman a chance. I don’t know, we’ll see. Here’s how I think we’ll line up:

Almunia
Sagna – Gallas – Vermaelen – Clichy
Denilson
Ramsey – Fabregas (c)
Rosicky – Eduardo – Arshavin

I think that’s a strong side, our only weakness is the missing Alex Song but he could return in our next game. We do have Cesc Fabregas though and he ran riot against Villa a few weeks ago in his 20 minute cameo. The home side have the displeasure of a full 90 minutes of him tonight, hopefully he can be just as effective.

Villa also rested players in the cup last weekend and will have a fresh Friedel, Cuellar, Dunne, Milner, Heskey and Agbonlahor to chose from. Their captain Stiliyan Petrov is just coming back from injury and was an unused sub at the weekend so he might return, so too might Curtis Davies who played for the first time on Saturday.

Stephen Warnock, Nigel Reo-Coker and John Carew are all out, which I guess is a bit of a bonus. I never like playing against Carew he always seems to break through our defense.

We aren’t on TV which is a bit of a surprise; instead Sky are showing the Mickey Mouse Cup semi between a bunch of northern cunts. Meh. It’s a massive game for us tonight so I suspect there will be thousands looking for internet streams. There’s a screening at The Grove, which would be good to go to if I didn’t live 100 miles away… but enjoy those of you that are. If I find something decent I’ll link you on my twitter.

COME ON THE ARSENAL.