Aston Villa v Arsenal Match Thread

[Legion]

Available Wednesday evening.

[PaulWinch again]

Clark and Cuellar start, good stuff. I'm really glad to see Ciaran play. However I reckon we'll get dicked, but come on your Villa boys!

[Dave]

22 Guzan
02 Hutton
03 Warnock
05 Dunne
21 Clark
24 Cuellar
07 Ireland
10 N'Zogbia
12 Albrighton
19 Petrov
11 Agbonlahor

Substitutes
33 Marshall, 06 Collins, 37 Williams, 16 Delph, 25 Bannan, 14 Delfouneso, 26 Weimann

Interesting. Midfield three of Clark, Petrov and Ireland. Who knows, maybe it might just work. Good to see Cuellar in for Collins as well.

[Dave]

Arsenal
13 Szczesny
04 Mertesacker
05 Vermaelen
06 Koscielny
08 Arteta
14 Walcott
16 Ramsey
26 Frimpong
39 Coquelin
10 Van Persie
27 Gervinho

Substitutes
01 Almunia, 18 Squillaci, 07 Rosicky, 15 Oxlade-Chamberlain, 23 Arshavin, 30 Benayoun, 29 Chamakh

[Phil from the upper holte]

He doesn't know his best team

[TonyD]

Good team - come on.

[barrysleftfoot]

  I really hope Ireland has a good game tonight.For me he needs a run of games, and could be the important link player we have been lacking for quite a while.

[Mister E]

He doesn't know his best team

Yep, why Ireland and not Bannan?
Who is "Williams" on the bench?

[supertom]

I think a midfield 3 of Stan, Clark and Ireland could work well. Clark mopping up, Stan to make things tick, and let Ireland float a bit and make a few runs. If we can get Ireland into the game and he can get N'Zogbia and Gabby running down the channels, we could get some joy today.

Not carrying Collins, Bent and Heskey could help us a lot. Them getting in the team on name, regardless of form really won't help McLeish get any sort of game plan (if he does have one) running. Hopefully, if we start playing a balanced side and keep the form players in, then we might play better as a consequence. If we don't, then this club is truely doomed to suffer dredgery under Ecks reign.
Fingers crossed.

[supertom]

He doesn't know his best team

Yep, why Ireland and not Bannan?
Who is "Williams" on the bench?

Bannan hasn't covered himself in glory to be fair, and he's looked very poor since the incident. Ireland's behaved himself this season and I hope, if we give him some kind of a run in the side, he might hit form. Lets face it, if Heskey and Collins get sustained runs in the side, no matter how crap they are playing, then I don't see why we don't give Ireland a chance, or Clark and Cueller. Hopefully McLeish will now give a run to some of the players who haven't thus far had a sniff.

[Mister E]

He doesn't know his best team

Yep, why Ireland and not Bannan?
Who is "Williams" on the bench?

Daniel Williams - a striker-cum-winger from the Academy. So three strikers on the bench: go, Alex, go!

[eric woolban woolban]

Whatever the team McLeish picks, we'll lose.

I'm going for another poor performance coupled with a three nil defeat.

I'm as pessimistic now as I was last January.

[Dave]

He doesn't know his best team

Yep, why Ireland and not Bannan?

Ireland might have shown a better attitude in training? McLeish might think that he fits better with Clark and Petrov? He might feel that Ireland would match up better than Bannan against Arsenal's midfield and defence? He might feel that Ireland behind Gabby would work better than Bannan behind Gabby?

Any number of reasons.

[dean saunders left boot]

He doesn't know his best team

Yep, why Ireland and not Bannan?
Who is "Williams" on the bench?

Derrick Williams, a defender, got his name off the OS, in the reserves, though there was no info about him under the profile thingy

[Mister E]

He doesn't know his best team

Yep, why Ireland and not Bannan?
Who is "Williams" on the bench?

Bannan hasn't covered himself in glory to be fair, and he's looked very poor since the incident.

It's a fair point, Tom, but if we have promising youngsters (how old is he?), we just need to play them. Mind you, if we have an overpaid player then we may as well put him in the window for January's transfer merry-go-round.