2001, A Carew Odyssey

Some football is on the horizon at last. Tomorrow nights trip to Villa Park brings to a close the longest week of the year. There are worse places to be going as we seek to extract something from a season that fell horribly flat over ten awful days.

Villa, under the highly regarded Martin O’Neill, have been as inconsistent as can be. There is little doubt though that they are slowly moving in the right direction and tomorrow will see the Gunners pitted against a nemesis from 2001.

John Carew broke our hearts with a headed winner for Valencia in the Champions League quarter-final. He will provide a real threat, particularly from set pieces.

With Chris Sutton ruled out with blurred vision, Villa have tended to support Carew with a five man midfield. The width is provided by the likes of Shaun Maloney (doubtful for tomorrow), Gabby Agbonlahor, and recently signed Ashley Young.

The combative qualities of Gareth Barry and Gavin McCann will free former Celtic creator Stiliyan Petrov to roam in midfield.

As for Arsenal, it is pretty much a case of whoever is fit or not suspended will be on the coach. The biggest question mark is over who will play up front. It’s hard to see Wenger breaking the Baptista and Aliadiere partnership. I would still like to see Henry’s ‘heir apparent’, Theo Walcott, given a chance to show what he can do in a central role, if only as an impact sub against tiring defenders.

So that’s it until tomorrow, when hopefully there will be some more squad news to mull over. For now it’s time to consult the Cheltenham form. Picking winners at the festival looks about as simple as predicting the score at Villa Park.

Oh, and one more thing. Congratulations to the daddy of Arsenal blogs, Arseblogger, on his thoroughly deserved Sports Blog of the Year award. That man has too much time on his hands!