Morning everyone. It is Sunday and Aston Villa are playing. You should be, right about now, having a proper English breakfast with extra fried bread and a big mug of tea and be well and truly on your way.
I fancy this is going to be the game of the day and I've got a good feeling about it although I have to tell you that I'm not getting or feeling confident - just because Wolves are a smaller club than us doesn't mean that they can not beat us.
All things are equal at the start of the game and they will have as much belief as us that they can win. Anything is possible in football - even The Clowns are playing Premier League football.
So, this is what it is going to be like today. As and when we get the team news, we will update here and on Twitter, I will be opening my first beer in about one hour. I'll be watching Bolton and Manchester United with money on United and with a bit of luck by the time 2.05pm comes about I'll be well on my way to sleeping on the couch tonight.
Sunday Speculation
It didn't take long for the transfer speculation to start and we have our second and third player links for Gerard Houllier. They are and you won't be surprised by the first, Djibril Cisse and Real Madrid midfielder Fernando Gago.
Cisse scores goals. He scored them when he was at Liverpool and he scored them at Sunderland last season or the season before last when on loan and he is currently scoring for fun at Panathinaikos, but even my ugly brother scored in Greece, so don't put too much credibility to that little statistic.
Cisse likes to score and we only really have Carew at the moment that likes to score but he just isn't quick enough out of the blocks. The Fonz might become that person, but if the speculation is true and the manager is looking at Cisse, The Fonz is going to have to take a back seat for a little bit longer.
Fernando Gago on the other hand doesn't score for fun. He is a defensive midfielder who started his career at Boca Juniors before moving to Real Madrid in 2007 where he has since made 89 appearances. At 24 years old he is, I'm told, talented, but I have to be honest, while I watch a fair bit of Spanish football, I'm not very good with the names and watch more for the football than the clubs or personalities, so I can't be sure when I have seen him play or what I might have thought about him.
Aston Villa at Wolves
Right, that is almost if from me at the moment, but if you are going to have a bet today have it on Emile to score at any time. I just have a feeling that while we can normally expect Heskey to put in one very good performance a season then slip away back into obscurity, that he might perform for this manager.
Naturally a cheeky bet on Aston Villa to win wouldn't be a bad idea either and that is the second part of my bet today; Manchester United and Aston Villa to both win. I got 3/1 at PaddyPower and you can get it too by clicking here and if you were to add Newcastle to that bet you'd end up getting 7/1 but getting three matches right is tough.
The odds below are the best odds from the bookmakers we use for the win and any time goal scorer. Heskey could be that man and he carries a good price.
The Manager
Gerard Houllier
It will be tough but we will be ready and we will be up for it. I expect they will put everything into it to win it and they must expect we will put everything in to win as well. It should be a very good game. The players are not necessarily from the area but they know what a derby is because at other clubs they knew what a derby was like and they know what the fans are like.
Our aim is to make our fans happy and hopefully win the derby. It is more than three points, it is a derby.
He really does know what to say doesn't he, but he isn't wrong. It is more than three points today.
Watching online
You know my views on this - if you want something you can full screen and not have any real issues about then you have to use these guys. I was stuck at Copenhagen airport one day and watched on my machine running Ubuntu and VLC and I had no issues whatsoever and now they have a web based flash player so it is even better.
Team News
No real surprises today. The eleven are Brad Friedel, Luke Young, Carlos Cuellar, James Collins, Stephen Warnock, Stewart Downing, Marc Albrighton, Nigel Reo-Coker, Stiliyan Petrov, Ashley Young and Emile Heskey.
On the bench we have Stephen Ireland, Steve Sidwell, Gabby Agbonlahor, Curtis Davies, Brad Guzan, Barry Bannan and Eric Lichaj.
Looks like 451 but expect Webcam, sorry Ashley Young, to be everywhere and it to look like 442 at times. Nice to see Nigel Reo-Coker back in and if he can start to show the form that won him rave reviews a few years ago, I'd like him to sign an extension very soon. But that is just me.