Arsenal-Aston Villa scrap for 4th could run and run

An interesting weekend.

We were all reckoned Aston Villa would lose at Anfield. And, sure enough, Liverpool smashed Villa 5-0.

Arsenal won 3-1 at Newcastle and are three points above Villa, who are fifth.

The key stat ( not shown) is this : Villa have lost 8 games. Arsenal have lost five.

This is the table for the next two weeks :

	P	W	Pts
Man Utd	29	20	65
Liverpool	30	18	64
Chelsea	30	18	61
Arsenal	30	15	55
Aston Villa	30	15	52
Everton	30	13	48

Arguably, Martin O’Neill’s best hope of catching Arsenal for fourth place is if Wenger’s boys play another four Champions League games. Two against Villarreal, two against Man United

Arshavin started the win at St James’s Park. His pinpoint free-kick allowed Bendtner to head in from seven yards. Bendtner is six foot four and should do that more often, Maybe he will now.

Obafemi Martins equalised within 49 seconds. Martins poked the ball against the defender’s leg and when the spinning rebound sat up for him, Martins hit an electric volley past Almunia with his left foot. A remarkable reflex goal and far better than the feeble penalty that Almunia saved in the first half

Then Diaby scored a fantastic goal after centreback Steven Taylor went off injured and before the sub came on. The other regular centreback Bassong had gone off injured after 38 minutes. Diaby is a long-striding attacker who can explode beyond opponents and open up gaps and chances. It was an elegant, spectacular goal which came after he sliced forward from the centre circle and exchanged passes with RVP. But can Diaby score that goal against eleven men?

Van Persie took two touches on that assist and five as he played Nasri in for 3-1, a professional near-post finish that gave Harper no chance.

Amazingly, all four goals came in ten minutes : 57, 58, 64 and 67.

If Steven Taylor had been sent off for that forearm smash on Arshavin near the touchline, Arsenal would have won 6-1, not 3-1.

All managers want to go into a two-week international break with a win. Wenger and Benitez did that, Sir Alex and Guus Hiddink didn’t.

Guus Hiddink’s first defeat came at Spurs when he picked the wrong team.

Drogba, 31 now but still a lion at key moments, should not play with Anelka. He is a 4-3-3 striker who needs the whole box to himself and colleagues who will play for him and to him. If Chelsea don’t play for him and to him, forget it. And they can’t play for him or to him with Anelka in the side. Also, Quaresma should not have started on the left, not Malouda

Modric scored the only goal after Aaron Lennon jinked away from two Chelsea players and cut the ball back just inside the penalty area, where Robbie Keane and Modric were unmarked. The Croatian could not believe how much space he had as he stroked the ball into the bottom corner,

There were rumours last week of a massive bust-up between Sir Alex and Rooney in the dressing room after the 4-1 defeat by the Liverpool.

At Fulham, Sir Alex dropped Rooney and Tevez to use a bizarre pairing of Berbatov and Ronaldo, two posers. Like Veron, Berbatov is a luxury player, not a red devil. With a midfield of Giggs, Scholes, Fletcher and Park, it was a pigs breakfast of a side. When United lost a man and a goal in one incident, they were in trouble, even though their ten men dominated the second half after Danny Murphy converted the penalty for handball.

But soon after sub Gera made it 2-0, Rooney threw the ball back petulantly for a Giggs free-kick to be re-taken. Ref Phil Dowd did not have to send Rooney off but he was asking for a second yellow card and got it.

When United have been good this season, they’ve been very good. When they haven’t been good, they’ve been sloppy, scrappy and shocking. It has looked as if Tevez is on the way out, as United did not want to pay £32 million to Kia Joorbachian. But by May, United will have paid MS1 £12 million for his services. Tevez is very keen to stay, loves playing for United, so negotiations will go to the wire. Once Ronaldo has been sold to Read Madrid, the money will be there and Kia knows that, so he will play a poker game too.

Bottom line, Tevez is a red devil who gives value for money in every game. Last year’s double would have been impossible without Tevez. And it was Tevez and Rooney who destroyed Fulham when United won 4-0 in the FA Cup.

If Sunday’s big game showed anything, it was that Aston Villa lack the class of the Big Three.

On a good day the Villa team looks like the best of the rest. They can give anybody else a game but not the Big Three. And Arsenal could not beat them from 2-0 up. Reina made two good saves from Carew, Riera had a terrific game on the left, scoring one goal, winning a penalty, and winning a free-kick which led to the first goal by Kuyt. Gerrard scored two penalties and a free-kick.

Fulham 2 Man United 0 was a great result for Liverpool and Rafa Benitez is really on a roll right now. He’s had a string of big results : a 4-0 win against Real Madrid, a 4-1 win at Man United, a new five-year contract, and a 5-0 thrashing of Aston Villa. As long as 21-goal Stevie G doesn’t get injured playing for England, Rafa will be in pole position, even though Man United have a game in hand. United have peaked, Ronaldo and Tevez are leaving, the edifice is cracking, and the greatest manager of all time seems semi-detached.

As I say, Rafa’s on a roll. When you get three points and five goals, and Man United and Chelsea lose, you’ve had a wonderful weekend.

Nice to see Fulham boss Roy Hodgson doing well because he is one of the good guys of football. We need a few more managers like him.

Considering Arsenal v Aston Villa, there’s bad news and good news..

The bad news is that Arsenal haven’t won for three games and Aston Villa are a rugged, workmanlike side who score lots of goals from set-pieces and crosses.

Theo Walcott has warned that Gabby Agbonlahor is the danger man and that might prove to be the case. Because Agbonlahor is more of a goalscorer than a winger. He loves to get in the box when play is on the other side of the field. He can get onto knockdowns from six foot five inch John Carew, and he can get on the end of crosses from Ashley Young, who is proving to be a steal at £9 million.

Walcott knows these guys well from the England Under 21s. He’s trained with them and played with them and knows what they can do. And they know where he can be dangerous.

In a must-win game like this, it’s a great shame that there is a second dimension : It’s the game before AC Milan at the San Siro. This is the only time Arsenal have met Milan in the Champions League and it’s a special night, potentially a historic night, poised 0-0 at half-time. Playing Aston Villa is hard enough without playing them during half-time of a bigger game.

So this is the moment when Arsene Wenger may ask himself : Am I more likely to win the league or the Champions League?

The once-familiar concept of “taking each game as it comes” has gone now. It’s history, it’s obsolete. Big coaches prioritise.

The good news is that Arsenal are at home and now have a terrific record at the Emirates.

When Aston Villa came last season it was on the first day and Arsenal had not settled in and I told listeners of Dublin’s Newstalk 106 on the Friday night that Arsene Wenger has had ten years to prepare for this game and Martin O’Neill has had ten minutes, so Arsenal would give Villa good hiding. The 1-1 draw was an anti-climax, to put it mildly.

That was a gung-ho prediction. I get in trouble for those. Earlier this season I said Arsenal would win at Anfield and that was a 1-1 draw as well and I got flak. At that time, I didn’t think Liverpool were that good. Didn’t think they were playing that well, reckoned Arsenal would beat them 2-1.

Since that draw I’ve written fewer previews and made, I think, fewer predictions. My stuff here is often written in the moment, for the moment, and sometimes captures the moment. In this moment, this morning, it looks as if Arsene will play Diaby on the left, and Walcott behind Adebayor.

If Ade gives Walcott a good pass, he’ll score. He scored twice last week and I’m not worried about him missing, I’m more worried about Ade giving him the right pass. We don’t know the teams yet, let alone whether Ade will give Walcott a good pass. He might go through the whole game without giving him a good pass.

What are the prices for First Goalscorer? What price is Walcott? What price is Gallas?