CAN WE PLAY VILLA EVERY WEEK?

 

(Image taken from Manutd.com)

 

So, we faced Villa before Xmas in the Premiership at Villa Park. We won. We faced Villa at Old Trafford in the FA Cup 3rd round. We won there as well. And so finally we faced Martin O'Neill's side at Old Trafford, in the Premiership. It looked a cinch from where I was standing at least. Van de Saar in goal, Rio and Vidic in central defence, Scholes and Carrick in central midfield. Unless United got too complacent, Martin O'Neill would need a miracle.

And that miracle certainly didn't look like coming early on. United started on the attack and though Villa may have kept us out to start with, when a Villa clearance in the 11th minute only got as far as Park, the Korean got his first goal of the season before setting up Carrick in the 13th for the ex-Spurs mifielder's first goal for United. It was only after that that Villa got anything resembling a chance and before half time both Park and Carrick combined to set up Ronaldo. 3-0. O'Neill had his work cut out.

Credit where credit's due, Villa did pull one back in the 52nd minute when Milan Baros set up Gabriel Agbonlahor. They never looked like getting a second though, this was United's show and the only surprise was that the score stayed at 3-1 despite Fergie throwing on Saha to go three up front. Bottom line, Villa ran from Old Trafford with their backs on fire while United picked up another straightforward three points and took another step towards the Premiership trophy.

Elsewhere, Chelsea faced Wigan at Stamford Bridge and the Blues must have gone into this match with a lot to prove. By half time they were already 1-0 up thanks to Frank Lampard. And then in the second half the visitors got pretty much shredded. Arjen Robben made it two, a Chris Kirkland og made it three and Didier Drogba made it four. That suggests Chelsea are back to something resembling form but United are still six points ahead of them at the top of the Premiership.

And well, way back in my original football state of play article from summer '05 I predicted that Chelsea would implode in 05/06 due to too many egos. I was a season off but it has happened more spectacularly than I had ever imagined and with shades of the situation at Hearts, the biggest ego of the bunch has turned out to belong to Roman Abramovitch! Even I have to have some sympathy with Jose here, and he's wanting out and will probably go at the end of the season. At which point, as with Hearts, no half decent manager is going to want anything to do with the club. Abramovitch wants to snap up Guus Hiddink but in that case he's living in another reality. The Dutchman's even cockier than Jose and has already said he doesn't want the "stress" of Stamford Bridge. The Chelsea era of dominance of English football has been brief and it is over! The only question is, how far are they going to fall?

North of the border, Aberdeen were back in SPL action against Inverness CT at Pittodrie. The first half wasn't exactly eventful and the Dons looked like they were in more of a mess with the match still goalless at half time. For most of the second half even, Caley had the edge over Jimmy Calderwoods men and the Reds never looked likely to win the game and John Rankin hit a late goal to seemingly give Caley three points. Out of stubbornness alone Aberdeen did come out with some pride, Steve Lovell equalising in injury time.

Elsewhere, Rangers beat Dundee United 5-0 at Ibrox to open the Walter Smith era in style while fifth placed Hibs beat Dunfirmline 2-0 at East End Road. That leaves the Dons still in third place in the SPL, three points behind Rangers and second(and the Champions League) and three points ahead of Hibs(and the non-Europe spaces). Celtic keep a seventeen point lead at the top of the table after beating Hearts 2-1 at Tynecastle, taking them one more step towards the title.

I'm actually going to headline with events north of the border midweek for a change.

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