Gameday: Villa vs. United

Ok people, if we miss any posts over the next week or so, it's cause we're partying. I'm not even gonna apologize. You know why? Cause we're done with school. For ever.

He was our hero against the Villains. Might as well pay homage.

The 411:
After failing to break through the stubborn City defense in Part 1 of the Manchester derby, United are in Birmingham today to take on Aston Villa.

Chasing the Title:
Our draw and Chelsea's win against Fulham in midweek puts us 4 points behind the Blues. That's not good. Even though we weren't playing badly, I thought we were on a roll and would grind out wins for the rest of the month. But oh well, it had to end somewhere, and it was better that we kept our no-lose streak alive for now. Anywho, a win here would see us go to within 1 point of Chelsea as they play tomorrow.

Where We Stand:
1|Chelsea|12P|23GD|28PTS
2|United|12P|11GD|24PTS
3|Arsenal|12P|13GD|23PTS
4|Man City|12P|5GD|21PTS
-------------------------------------
5|Newcastle|12P|5GD|17PTS

Enemy Form:
Villa are W-D-D-L-D in their last five games and are sitting 10th in the league. You'd think Aston Villa can do better than that, but that's until you see that there are 6 teams in the table with 6 points. So really Villa are tied for 6th in the league.

They are a threat everywhere. We cannot underestimate them and I'm pretty sure Fergie will be drilling that into the guys before the game, at half time, and on the bus home. Hell, he'll probably call them a week from today telling the players not to underestimate Villa. Why? Because this happens...

Players to Look Out For:
There are a lot of dangerous men on the Villa team, but I want us to look out for one of them in particular: Gabby Agbonlahor. First of all, I don't think he gets enough praise for the good player he is. He can run, dribble around defenders, cross, and shoot. In fact he's like our Gabby, but he is less tricks and more doing-things-that-end-in-goals. We'll just need to put a strong, fast defender next to him and we should be covered. With Rafael out and Evra a doubt, we could see Fábio out there tonight.

As for us, I'm looking for a big night from Dimitar Berbatov. It seems like I've said it far too often these days, but all he needs is a lucky bounce and all of a sudden, you'll see him back in the form he was earlier at the start of the season. He was an absolute beast against City. Even though he didn't manage a goal, his dribbling and positional play showed us that you can be a lone striker against like 8 defenders as long as you have the creativity to do so.

On the Home Front:
Our list of injuries grew longer at Eastlands with Rafael suffering a dead leg and Evra doing in his ankle. That, according to the physioroom, leaves us with 8 injured players, the second highest number in the league right now. Those eight are Rafael, Evra, Hargreaves, Owen, Giggs, Rooney, Valencia, and Anderson (YAY!!!). So assuming all the others are up and ready to go, we actually have a very strong team at out disposal.

TSR's Thoughts
1. Will we finally see a return to the 4-4-2? I'm sick of the 4-5-1.
2. Can Berbatov get out of his goal drought today?
3. I have this nasty feeling that after the 07-08 season, Hargreaves broke a mirror, walked under a ladder, walked through a black cat's path, and then broke another mirror. All in 30 seconds.
3b. I am a firm believer in superstitions. So I'm NOT gonna do a bold predictions post and see if we end up with a better results because of it.

This one's for Kirk.

Just give me something to believe.