Morning all. Yesterday I went to a college in the morning to answer a few questions on English culture and in the afternoon I was asked to talk on a webinar about the impact of social media in the workplace. The first question I was asked after my little talk was 'how do you manage the use of social media in the work place' and if anyone can give me the right answer to that, I'll get you drunk.
Those are my excuses. That and there really was nothing to write about yesterday that you didn't already know and as it turns out it turned out quite a nice thing as every comment made yesterday was a positive one and I'm in a positive mood at the moment and it's all good.
But today, we've got a little bit to look at and while not all is directly Aston Villa, it's all football and I fancy there will be a fair bit if discussion over some of the points.
First up, to some news. Stewart Downing has said that he expects to be back training in mid November and he hopes to play about a month after that. It's good news, that he is coming back as he was an expensive player and I know some will say Webcam could probably do with a little break but we all know O'Neill doesn't like to drop players and I'm not sure where he is going to play at the moment.
As long as we keep winning, I can't see O'Neill changing anything. I think we might come unstuck with Wolves up next as they're not going to play like Man City or Chelsea - they will likely sit back and wait for us and we don't have the personnel to play that way. Has it all just made sense?
It could very well be that Downing is in the side to be that type of player. It might be. I'm not saying he is, but he might be. I'm not convinced that he is that type of player but if I were to have scored James Milner last season it would have been a five, today it is a seven.
I'd like a little more from Milner, but I'm now in the 'he's still young, it will happen' zone when it comes to his crossing, but he is like a faithful dog that you know will run and run for you. If you were to send him out to fetch something, you know he's going to get it eventually, even if he has to stay out all night in the rain without dinner, he'll search and search and you'll likely call him in to sit by the warm fire and dry off before he will give up.
Moving on and I've touched on Wolves. We'll have a match preview in a day or two so I won't go too deep into it, but it is going to be a different match, mostly because Wolves are playing for something else. If O'Neill changes things around, I think it would be a positive sign because we have to play differently against these teams, but we'll know on Saturday.
Statistics as of October 20th 2009
- 21st: Gabby Agbonlahor - 128 points
- 48th: Brad Friedel - 104 points
- 57th: Ashley Young - 100 points
- 58th: James Collins - 100 points
- 64th: Richard Dunne - 93 points
- 68th: Carlos Cueller - 90 points
Top 10 Keepers
- 2nd: Brad Friedel - 104 points
We don't have any players in the top ten for any other position this week, but we are close and I fancy James Collins and Richard Dunne are probably going to finish the season in it. Stan Petrov and James Milner have dropped out of the top 100 since the last time we did this on September 29th.
Right, it turned out to be all Aston Villa and while I could post something about Emile Heskey using his mobile phone during dinner or the rumour that some Chelsea players would be interested in him joining in Janaury (football really has gone mad if rumours like this are getting passed off and accepted), I won't, instead I will ask, was the Ridgewell tackle fair? I think so, but I'm from the time when football was football. But right now, I have pig or bird flu, so I must go back to bed.