Unbeaten and in the reckoning for the all important Race for Seventh

The fixture list did us a massive favour by steering our team away from them nasty billionaire sides who are obviously head and shoulders above of everyone else.

The fans would already be screaming for Alex McLeish’s head if we were hammered by ManYoo at home 5-0 like our Race For Seventh challengers Bolton.

But as it is I don’t see how we can slate our manager. He’s unbeaten. Since when has drawing away at Everton a bad result?

However, tomorrow’s game against Newcastle needs to be a win because we need to make hay why the sun shines before the onset of winter and a fixture list which is tougher than a teenage rioter’s jail sentence. McLeish is promising attacking football, which is pretty brave considering we would need to have attacking players to do that and we’ve sold most of them.

With Heskey injured tomorrow might herald a start for either Bannan or Ireland which would increase the forward pass right by a mile.

If Flaming Eck is serious about attacking football then he should play Gabby in his right position not stuck out on the league where he is out the game and prone to think about his CSA payments.

But it is certainly nice to see our defence and keeper playing well after the keystone defending of last year’s campaign. Then again we are not playing as far up the field and pressing teams so our centre backs are not vulnerable to the counter attacking team.

In tomorrow’s Battle of the Unpopular Managers I think if we score early we could put a few past Newcastle.

Our competitors in the Race for Seventh have also had a bad start which stands us in good stead. Moneybags Sunderland are in trouble, Bruce has managed to splash the cash to end up with less chance of scoring any goals than ever before.

Bolton have also had an awful start to the campaign as well. Let’s hope we defeat them in the cup too because that is probably our only realistic chance of bagging a trophy this season.

Everton are castrated by not having some foreign billionaire owner and that leaves Stoke, the dark horses in the Race for Seventh. They have bought big, and tall, but schleping all over Eastern Europe will take its toll, I wonder if they will drop half their team behind the Iron Curtain to ensure they beat us at the weekend? Funny how footballing fortunes can change so quickly.

Speaking of changing fortunes, Ashley Young, who is now earning fortunes, is fitting the ManYoo team better than I do in my favourite lucky green pants. And fair play to him. The top echelons of the Premier League is alien to me, it is about as relevant to my life as the cost of yachts. Hoping Young doesn’t kiss his Utd badge when he scores another great goal is about as close as I get emotionally attached to the Top Four League. And of course hoping Downing becomes a figure of fun on Mersyside for his bottling weirdo ways.

But enough about how awful the morally bankrupt Premier League, let us concentrate on Newcastle at home, 3pm on a Saturday, something which I am delighted to say is a regular occurance in Race for Seventh fixtures.

So no excuses, get down the Villa, they’ve even stopped playing them embarrassing bells before the match now, and support your local team.

Up the Villa!

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