Trees and sniffles

The Christmas trees went up at Bodymoor Heath on Tuesday morning.

And that's not the only seasonal thing that has come to town.

Flu.

Have you noticed that footballers never get 'a cold', or 'a bit of a sniffle'.

No, it's always a raging 'flu bug'- one that will always lie the unfortunate sufferer bed-ridden, well nigh unconscious for days.

Well, I'm hearing that Moustapha Salifou and Luke Young were none too well at training yesterday, and coupled with Nicky Shorey and before him Nigel Reo-Coker being unwell, I just could not hope to guess what side will take the field tonight.

Guzan, Harewood, Knight, Gardner- all certs.

Cuellar, Davies, Milner, Shorey, Salifou, Reo-Coker, Sidwell, Delfouneso- all probables.

And maybe an Ashley Young thrown in for good measure.

The Ajax game didn't just catch the imagination is positvely stoked it.

MSK Zilina, with all due respect, hardly set the pulses racing.

But Dr Jo Venglos is in town and looking do different than he did in the late 80s.

With just one point needed to qualify, and with half a dozen changes expected, there is a danger of Villa playing this one at a canter.

It's live on the telly, it's a cold night and they don't sell beer in the ground. I can't see a decent crowd at all. I hope I'm wrong.

Topping the group gives Villa such a bonus in having to face a third placed side in the last 32.

Finishing second and your in big trouble- facing a Champions League drop-out.

So the incentive is there and perhaps this couold be the night when Marlon Harewood turns back the clock to around last November, January or February when he scored those memorable goals against Blackburn, Liverpool and Reading.

He scored a cracker against Litex Lovech in October but has played just 43 minutes since and you can't tell me he'll be at the club come February next year.

No Harewood's loss is Emile Heskey's gain.

But of course the focus of the fans tonight will be on Nathan Delfouneso, the latest in a long line of home grown strikers following in the footsteps of Darius Vassell, Luke and Stefan Moore and Gabby Agbonlahor in recent times.

Let's hope turns out to be more of the former or the latter and less of the inbetween.

There was so much expectation on the shoulders of Stefan, particularly when he got that first goal against Charlton having nutmegged Richard Rufus.

But he quickly faded away to be replaced by an even more exciting prospect in younger brother Luke.

Luke enjoyed some sparking moments in a Villa shirt, mostly against Middlesbrough, but when push came to shove he faded too.

And worryingly for Albion he is getting dimmer and dimmer.