Back to reality

After the midweek return of European club Football for the Premierships top clubs, it is back to the battle on the domestic front.

Manchester United face a Wembley encounter with Spurs this weekend, leaving the three successful Champions league teams to start of this weekends league proceedings on Saturday. All are faced with encounters they need to win to make up ground on the champions whose fantastic recent form has seen them pull seven points clear of the chasing pack.

Guus Hiddink’ resurgent Chelsea side face Steve Bruce’ Wigan side, who go into the game on the back of four draws.

The Russian manager will see the game as an ideal opportunity to make up lost ground on Alex Ferguson’s men, with Wigan still coming to terms with the loss of Emile Heskey and Wilson Palacios.

Bernabeau conquerors Liverpool will be bought back down to Earth with a trip to the Riverside, to face a Middlesboro side battling for their lives at the foot of the table. Manager Gareth Southgate will be hoping his sides league form will get a much needed shot in the arm by their own midweek cup win.

Rafa Benitez will surely be desperate to put pressure on his Old Trafford counterparts this weekend with a win in the North-East, which would close the gap to four. He will be hoping to stay in touching distance of United ahead of their upcoming clash.

Meanwhile Arsenal will be hoping for no more slip ups in their chase for fourth spot, as they entertain Fulham at the Emirates. Arsene Wenger will be hoping his side can exact some revenge on their London neighbours, who upset the Gunners earlier this season but are yet to win away from Craven Cottage this season. At the same time, he will see this as an opportunity to draw closer to Aston Villa, who currently occupy fourth.

Sunday brings a difficult home game for Villa, against a Stoke side looking for their first away win of the season. Villa will be hoping to maintain their six point lead over the Gunners by Sunday night, with Martin O’Neill signalling his intentions by resting eight first team regulars for their midweek trip to Moscow.

At the foot of the table, Villa’s midland rivals West Brom face a difficult Saturday lunchtime trip to Goodison Park, to face an Everton side with their own European aspirations. Tony Mowbray’s men have done well to reel in the rest in recent weeks but the trip to Merseyside looks a difficult one.

Blackburn will see a trip to faltering Hull as an opening to get out of the bottom three, attempting to capitalise on Hull’s poor recent form.

So this weekend will be a nervy test for sides at the top and bottom of the league. Any slip ups here could prove vital for sides such as Liverpool and Aston Villa, who are set to showdown in March, whilst potentially giving relegation battlers Stoke and Boro the chance to escape the foot of the table.

The title race looks set to hot up in March and the sides at the top will be hoping for no slip ups this weekend.

Villa vs CSKA

When Aston Villa entered the Inter 'two bob' toto cup at the start of this season many eyebrows were raised. Previous entrants had gone on to crash out of Europe at an early stage after putting in arduous work in the summer to qualify for the UEFA cup.

However, this season Martin O’Neill’s side have shown the benefit an early start to the season can have for his side who now sit 3rd in the Premiership as well as being in the last 32 of the UEFA cup.

The game itself provides an interesting proposition for the Russian side in particular, for whom this game is their first since November after a winter break which has seen them lose their manager.

The Russian side, who were the only team to win all four group games in this seasons group stages, are now under the stewardship of Brazilian legend Zico who took over from the previous manager during the winter break. Recent events at Stamford Bridge have shown the difficulty Brazilian managers have had in dealing with European club management.

Despite Zico's greatness as a player, he has been somewhat a journeyman as a manager, taking charge of a range of club and international sides. His job breaking down a talented Villa side will be made easier by the potential return of fellow Brazilian Daniel Carvalho, who has returned from a loan spell in Brazil. Carvalho is the player who led CSKA to their most recent European success, a UEFA cup win in 2005.

The task facing CSKA on Wednesday night is made easier by the injuries and suspensions which have hit Villa at once. Their defence is particularly struggling, missing key figures such as club captain Martin Laursen and Wilfred Bouma long term. They are struggling further with injury doubts surrounding Carlos Cuellar, Curtis Davies, Nigel Reo-Coker and Emile Heskey.

The first leg will hold the key to this tie, with Villa needing some kind of lead to hold onto away at the Luzhniki stadium. They will be looking to capitalise on their match freshness and put CSKA to the sword at Villa Park on Wednesday evening before the long journey to Russia.

This promises to be one of the ties of the round for the neutral and I hope for the resurgent Villa they can continue their good performances of this season.

Welcome

If you're wondering why I used the word agenda as my title, it has become somewhat a buzzword for me recently. I came to realise when thinking of Sport and the Media, and life in general to an extent, the people involved always seem to have some sort of agenda with regards to different situations. I then realised this blog clearly represent my agenda to become a Sports Writer and so the title for the blog seemed quite appropriate.

Anyway, one recent sporting event was the Football match between Spain and England. Spain, the FIFA recognised number one side in the world, represented a tough challenge for an England side still rebuilding after a failed attempt to qualify for Euro 2008, which Spain duly won.
England actually played fairly well during the opening stages, and were definetly unlucky to not have at least a man advantage if not a goal, when Emile Heskey was inexplicably given offside when pulled down by the last Spanish defender. The ref clearly didnt fancy giving a red card in a friendly game, and decided along with his flag happy assistant that giving a player who was one yard onside as offside was a much easier decision.
Such a pivotal moment in the game was overshadowed by mistakes by two stand in centre halves for England which led to two goals for Spain. Two goals I have clear reservations whether they would have happened if Rio Ferdinand was in the side.
Listening to media coverage after the game, you would have thought that England had been totally dominated and outclassed. Clearly, Spain are a good side and there was a 20 minute period in the second half where England were chasing shadows, but it shouldnt be overlooked that they had a man advantage in midfield after the withdrawal of Torres, and this coincided with their best spell in the match. After the introduction of Daniel Guiza and a return for Spain to a 4-4-2 formation, England once again came into the game and had the better of the closing stages.
Perhaps what I'm getting at is that the performance of a definitely under strength England side, should be commended and looked on positively. The only question mark I have after the game is, how does Stewart Downing continue to wear an England shirt?