Manchester City 4-1 Aston Villa - Shay Given on returning to City | Premier League 2011-12
- 10 years ago
Aston Villa are unbeaten in the Premier League this season yet still we await our first chant of 'Alex McLeish's claret and blue army'.
Clearly much of the deep-seated anger and resentment over the Scot's controversial switch from Birmingham remains - albeit diluted. Certainly Blues fans, who have dubbed McLeish 'McJudas', are in no mood to forgive and forget.
But Villa supporters must surely be coming around to McLeish after his arrival from their bitter rivals. The team's last display against Wigan was their best yet as Gabriel Agbonlahor destroyed the visitors.
And now Villa travel to big-spending Man City this weekend for their sternest test to date.
Taking points off Fulham, Blackburn, Wolves, Everton, Newcastle, QPR and Wigan is creditable but hardly remarkable.
Throw in a dismal Carling Cup exit at home to Bolton's second string, and grumbles about McLeish's perceived cautious tactics remain.
But the performance and manner of Villa's 2-0 win over Wigan was a significant breakthrough for me by McLeish.
The Scot finally played 4-4-2 with Agbonlahor and Darren Bent upfront together which delighted both players and had them praising the system afterwards as opposed to previous experiments with 4-5-1/4-2-3-1.
With the highly-promising Barry Bannan (who I am finally coming to respect as a future Premier League star after some misgivings) spraying passes from the right of midfield, Villa had some much-needed creativity.
Now they have the form, momentum and confidence to go to Eastlands and potentially get a result.
Rampant City will be huge favourites to win and in all probability will most likely triumph.However a draw with Villa using Agbonlahor's pace on the break and the team's recent resolute defending including the likes of in-form Shay Given, Richard Dunne, James Collins and Stephen Warnock is a possibility.
And surely the ex-City trio of Given, Dunne and Stephen Ireland will all be very fired up for the game after being bombed out.
So
Clearly much of the deep-seated anger and resentment over the Scot's controversial switch from Birmingham remains - albeit diluted. Certainly Blues fans, who have dubbed McLeish 'McJudas', are in no mood to forgive and forget.
But Villa supporters must surely be coming around to McLeish after his arrival from their bitter rivals. The team's last display against Wigan was their best yet as Gabriel Agbonlahor destroyed the visitors.
And now Villa travel to big-spending Man City this weekend for their sternest test to date.
Taking points off Fulham, Blackburn, Wolves, Everton, Newcastle, QPR and Wigan is creditable but hardly remarkable.
Throw in a dismal Carling Cup exit at home to Bolton's second string, and grumbles about McLeish's perceived cautious tactics remain.
But the performance and manner of Villa's 2-0 win over Wigan was a significant breakthrough for me by McLeish.
The Scot finally played 4-4-2 with Agbonlahor and Darren Bent upfront together which delighted both players and had them praising the system afterwards as opposed to previous experiments with 4-5-1/4-2-3-1.
With the highly-promising Barry Bannan (who I am finally coming to respect as a future Premier League star after some misgivings) spraying passes from the right of midfield, Villa had some much-needed creativity.
Now they have the form, momentum and confidence to go to Eastlands and potentially get a result.
Rampant City will be huge favourites to win and in all probability will most likely triumph.However a draw with Villa using Agbonlahor's pace on the break and the team's recent resolute defending including the likes of in-form Shay Given, Richard Dunne, James Collins and Stephen Warnock is a possibility.
And surely the ex-City trio of Given, Dunne and Stephen Ireland will all be very fired up for the game after being bombed out.
So