This weekend marks a long overdue return to Wembley. For a club of Aston Villa’s size and history, the fact that this is only the third time we have graced the home of national football (or in the interim the Millennium Stadium) since the last FA cup final at the Old Wembley is nothing short of embarrassing.
But it’s not time to dwell on the past failures of our great club, it’s time to look ahead to the future under Tim Sherwood and the fact that we are one game away from an FA Cup Final, not a phrase you could imagine in the darkest days towards the end of Lambert’s tenure.
But we must first start with our opponents, Liverpool. This season has been a rude awakening for the Merseyside club after their second placed finish last season. They failed in Europe in both the Champions League and Europa League and struggled to replicate their previous seasons amazing form due to the lack of goals from their front players. But one area they have fared well is the domestic competitions, they reached the Semi Finals of the Capital One Cup before losing to a single goal in extra time to eventual champions Chelsea. One of the main reasons as to why Liverpool have failed to replicate the form of last season has been the absence of a goal scorer as Luis Suarez had left to Barcelona and Daniel Sturridge becoming more and more susceptible to injuries. The likes of Mario Balotelli, Rickie Lambert and Fabio Borini have failed miserably to provide the goals that Liverpool need with the need for goals resting firmly on the likes of Raheem Sterling who seems to be intent on forcing a move out of Anfield in the summer.
The team news for Liverpool this weekend is that striker Daniel Sturridge is likely to miss out due to a recurrence of an old injury whilst captain Steven Gerrard is allowed to play again after serving his 3 match ban for violent conduct and defender Martin Skrtel is also available again having picked up a 3 match ban in the same game for stamping on David De Gea. Jordan Ibe is cup-tied for Liverpool having played earlier on in the competition for Derby and French defender Mahmadou Sakho is out injured.
Onto Villa and the fact that we will grace the Wembley turf on Sunday has seemed to give a massive lift to everyone at the club coupled with the magnificent result at White Hart Lane last Saturday, a victory which meant a lot to current manager Tim Sherwood as evidenced by the final whistle reactions. The club is currently cocooned in positivity, the likes of which have not been seen since the last season under Martin O’Neil. Benteke’s goal last Saturday provided a buffer to our closest relegation rivals which will need considering everyone below us will catch up on games played this weekend as we contend our most exciting fixture in years. It’s not since the days of O’Neil and before him Gregory that we have managed to get into the last 4 of the most prestige’s cup competition in world club football and it is something a club of our size should be doing more regularly. The FA Cup provides a chance for some much needed silverware for a club like ours and how we could do with that.
The team news for this weekend is that Tim Sherwood has declared both on loan winger Scott Sinclair and holding midfielder Ashley Westwood fit. But on the flip side he has said that Gabriel Agbonlahor faces a race to be fit in time due an injury sustained in the Tottenham match and Ciaran Clark is definitely out whilst midfielder Carlos Sanchez is suspended following his red card last weekend. Sherwood also has difficult choices to make throughout the team, does he stay loyal to Shay Given in goal or does he recall Brad Guzan who looked back to his best against Tottenham. He is also likely to recall Jores Okore to the centre of defence to replace the injured Clark, whilst Westwood looks likely to take the place vacated by Sanchez alongside Delph and Cleverley. If Agbonlahor isn’t fit, he will have a choice of Sinclair and Weimann to start upfront with. A key tactical battle is going to be how Sherwood decides to counter the effect of Sterling, will he assign a midfield player to track him everywhere or will he try and starve Sterling of attacking options by looking to mark his fellow attacking players out of the game?
Whatever he decides to do, Sherwood knows it isn’t going to be easy against Liverpool who despite their struggles this season, can be ruthless on their day. But if we get a few lucky breaks, if Benteke can bully their defenders as he has done in the past, if we can close down Sterling and Coutinho, we may just be in with a chance of our first FA Cup Final in 15 years.
