Aston Villa remember how to win, good news for Sheff Utd

Five stats about this weekend’s football

1. There’s no sign of any fight from the teams supposedly battling to avoid the drop. Over the last seven matches, the bottom five have produced just three wins between them - which have all come against one another (West Brom over Sunderland, Middlesbrough over Hull and Sunderland over Hull).

2. Aston Villa ended a 12-match winless streak by beating Hull last night but the sense of achievement was diminished by the fact Hull have won just two of their last 26 league games.

3. West Ham became the first team to beat Stoke at the Britannia Stadium in 2009 and joined Fulham as one of the only clubs outside the Big Four to keep a Premier League clean sheet there.

Posted: May 5th, 2009 by Michael Lintorn | Add Comment

FC Twente could finally get a result on the road in Europe

Schuper Schteve McClaren prepares his troops to face Marseille

The second coming of Steve McClaren, who was written off as a failure and forced to work abroad, has gone from strength to strength and his Dutch side FC Twente are now unbeaten in fourteen domestic games, of which they have won ten, and stand an outside chance of winning the Eredivisie.

The one area where drastic improvement is still required is European away games, of which they have lost their last eight, and the trip to Marseille tonight offers them a good chance of doing that. The visitors can be backed at 5/1 with Sky Bet while the draw is 11/4 with Ladbrokes .

Posted: February 19th, 2009 by Michael Lintorn | Add Comment

Everton FA Cup wins against Prem teams are like buses…

Five stats about this weekend’s football

1. Everton had gone ten years without knocking out a Premier League team in the FA Cup before eliminating Liverpool and Aston Villa, two of the top three, this year. The winner of Middlesbrough and West Ham’s fifth round replay won’t be looking forward to their quarter-final visit to Goodison Park.

2. The victory also marked the end of Aston Villa’s impressive sixteen match domestic unbeaten run and was Everton’s first win in six against Martin O’Neill’s side.

Posted: February 16th, 2009 by Michael Lintorn | Add Comment

It’s the UEFA Cup version of Champions League week six

Aston Villa and Portsmouth play without having much to gain

Aston Villa already know without doubt that they have qualified for the next stage of the UEFA Cup while Portsmouth know without doubt that they can’t qualify, meaning that they both go into their final group games with little to play for against, you’ve guessed it, teams with little to play for. Here’s our preview of tonight’s run out for the reserves:

Hamburg v Aston Villa
Both of Aston Villa and Martin Jol’s side are guaranteed a place in the next round so are just fighting it out to win the group tonight, unless Ajax beat Slavia Prague by a bigger margin than the winner of this match. At Tottenham, Jol enjoyed a six game unbeaten streak against Aston Villa, including a comeback from 4-1 down to draw 4-4 at home last season while since he has left Spurs have lost both matches against Martin O’Neill’s side, whose reserves lost at home to Zilina a fortnight ago. Hamburg have lost just once at home this season but haven’t won a home game in the UEFA Cup yet under Jol’s guidance.

Portsmouth v Heerenveen

Posted: December 17th, 2008 by Michael Lintorn | Add Comment

Why Villa are still unlikely to break the Big Four and more

Five stats about this weekend’s football

1. Steve McClaren’s FC Twente are up to third in the Eredivisie after a 6-2 win over Sparta Rotterdam. It was the second home league game in succession where the Dutch side scored six goals, something McClaren never managed while with either Middlesbrough or England.

2. When Everton broke the Big Four in 2004-05 they had 33 points at this stage, compared to Aston Villa’s 28. They were also nine points above the team they displaced, Liverpool (who had a game in hand), indicating that Martin O’Neill’s side are unlikely to finish above Arsenal this season.

3. Is David Bentley really worth thirteen points? Paul Ince thinks the press have an agenda against him but Blackburn had 26 points after sixteen games last season, double the number they have at the same stage this season.

Posted: December 9th, 2008 by Michael Lintorn | Add Comment

Why Stoke should be safe and the Bale curse continues

Five stats regarding this weekend’s football

1. Brilliant news for fans of Fulham, Middlesbrough, Bolton, West Ham and Stoke: never in the history of the 20-team Premier League has a team with over sixteen points after fourteen games been relegated.

2. Sunderland have only had one spell of consecutive Premier League victories since 2001 and that came when they won three successive games late last season. Their last six league wins have been followed by defeat.

3. Tottenham have still never won a Premier League game that Gareth Bale has started after Benoit Assou-Ekotto replaced the Welshman in the starting line-up as Spurs beat Blackburn 1-0. If Harry Redknapp is aware of the curse he would be wise to play Bale in the UEFA Cup then restore Assou-Ekotto against Everton on Sunday, though Toffees’ fans will hope this isn’t the case.

Posted: November 24th, 2008 by Michael Lintorn | Add Comment