So, it's away at Villa today
then. And “away” was the topic of a conversation that I had in work with a
fellow Blue the day after the demolition of Wigan .
Don’t forget your toothbrush!
My work colleague-Blue was slightly bemoaning our draw for
the 4th round of the League Cup and
he couldn’t quite understand why I didn’t see it as a bad'n too. So,
slightly perplexed myself I said, “Well perhaps an away game against Newcastle
However, it soon transpired that my fellow Blue had looked into things a little
deeper than I had done; whereas I watched the draw, shrugged my shoulders, turn
the TV off and had gone to bed on the Wednesday night, he’d looked at the fixture
date to see how it slotted in with our other games. ‘Must try harder’ I thought to myself…
I could instantly see his point as he listed the run of away
games, which culminated in our trip to the North East.
Saturday 19th October - West Ham United away (Premier League)
4 days later…
Wednesday 23rd October - CSKA Moscow away (Champions League)
4 days later…
Sunday 27th October - Chelsea
3 days later…
Wednesday 30th October - Newcastle
And the West Ham fixture, he continued, falls just after a
hell of a lot of players have been away all over the world on international
duty. Fair enough…YIKES!
If these fixtures hadn’t fallen after such big, World Cup
qualifying trips around the world I would probably not be too concerned at all.
But that does leave us (not just us of course) at some risk of not being
able to fully assess returning players in time for the West Ham game.
But before I sound like a whinging, conspiracy-theorist David Moyes; this is why you have big squads full of
quality players. Not everyone will be playing international games or will even
be travelling with their countries; this is where the likes of Micah, (the recovering) Demichelis,
(the recovering) Guidetti, Jack Rodwell and a whole host of EDS players will need to step into the side and cover
for the aching limbs (or worse) of their returning colleagues.
And besides, unless you are unlucky enough to get drawn away
in every leg of the both the League and F.A.Cups, you have to play pretty much the same number of home and away
games throughout the season. Just look at November's fixture list of 5 games, 4 at home...followed by another home game on 1st December.
Besides, I’ve found when watching City down the years that a run of
consecutive away games of 3 or more seems to focus teams. The early acceptance
(and planning) that you and your colleagues are going to be 'on the road' a heck
of a lot seems to somehow galvanise players. It’s
often the returning home fixture where our lads in the distant past have shot
themselves in the foot after a good set of results away from home…
However, that is certainly a lot of toothbrushes that will
need to be packed in time for October…although these days the players are more
concerned with packing their headphones, iPads ‘n’ the like.
Absentees both good and bad
No disrespect to Aston Villa’s other attacking players but
it’s extremely good news that their main threat, Christian Benteke, is out of this game with injury.
Not so good news is the continued absence of David Silva and the slight concern over the missing
in action, Sergio Aguero. A slight worry perhaps
that they’re not going to be playing in a top-flight Premier League away fixture…but that’s where the jitters end for me. From what
I’ve heard, had we not have been playing such a hard Champions League fixture just 4 days later against Bayern,
I recon these two key players would have been risked for our trip to Villa Park.
Once again it’s being made perfectly clear that the European
competition is firmly in the sights of Pellegrini
& Co. Thankfully, unlike the many rested players against Stoke before the trip to Plzen,
we have more players at our disposal to choose from and we go into this away
game in better form and confidence than we did at the Britannia Stadium.
Probable line-up against Villa then…
4-4-2:
________________Dzeko___________
_________Negredo________________
______Fernandinho____Toure_______
_______________Hart_______________
Subs: Pantilimon, Clichy
Should be a win…
2:27pm update...
Actual line-up against Villa…
4-4-2:
________________Dzeko___________
_________Negredo________________
______Fernandinho____Toure_______
_______________Hart_______________
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