“And what would you like for Christmas Martin” “Third in the Prem please Santa”

December 21, 2008 by Martin Banks
Filed under: Aston Villa 

0pic33Martin O’Neill is a realist. So much so that it annoys some fans. He knows we can’t win the league, he knows it will be very tough to finish top four and he thinks it will take us years to be regulars in the Champions League, if we achieve it at all. But I guess its better to be a realist than to end up disappointing all the fans come May.

O’Neill’s post match interview last night was hilarious, from asking if the interviewer had been drinking when he suggested Villa could win the league to his sarcasm about always being asked if we can break the top four. But one thing he can never be accused of is getting carried away. For us, the fans, we can (and will) get carried away. We’re loving every second of it and now we even have Christmas bragging rights over everyone bar two teams in the whole of English football. It also means I can go to the Manchester half of my family (they’re from Stretford so its allowed) on Chrtistmas night and rub their faces in it that we’re above them at Christmas for the first time in donkey’s years (don’t mention the games in hand, I mentioned them once but I think I got away with it).

So we won for the third time on the trot, giving us 9 points from December and still 2 games to play. We now have a 6 day gap between games, a rare luxury for Villa this season, and then have a much tougher test when we face Arsenal on Boxing Day. Finally we finish the year with a trip to high flying Hull, but they were demolished by Sunderland yesterday, so maybe their bubble has finally burst.

Yesterday’s game against West Ham was a tough fought encounter and some will say we were lucky to come away with the points, but that would be to overlook how hard we made it for West Ham to score. Friedel was on fire and Davies, Laursen, Cuellar and Luke Young all played their hearts out. If you can win games when you have little of the possession and are up against a lot of pressure, you deserve to be flying high in the league.

Times are good for Villa fans, so enjoy being third over Christmas and lets go into the Arsenal game with hopes high. We beat them at their place, we can do it at ours. Bring it on.


Comments

One Comment on “And what would you like for Christmas Martin” “Third in the Prem please Santa”

  1. Manchester United Are World Champions, Aston Villa Can End Year In Third Place and more on Sun, 21st Dec 2008 13:32

    2. [...] the year in third place. As Martin says, they’ve already beaten Arsenal at the Emirates and beating them at Villa Park should not be any more difficult. Villa may still end up outside the top four this season but if [...]

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