It's a little over 10 hours to go before the rumour mongers and speculation, erm, spasmos take themselves a much needed break. At least for a fortnight or so, then they'll be back with a vengeance, leading all the way up to the perennially underwhelming January window.
Until then, I thought I'd summarise this summer's movements to date, borrowing from the transfers page, and throw in anything that happens during the course of this afternoon and evening.

This is a big, big game for Alex Mcleish today. The last of a run of home games and a derby against an opponent that caused his predecessor so many problems. It's also something of a "top of the table" encounter and the winner, should there be one, will get boasting rights over the rest of the league for at least a while today.

Just over 21,000 saw Villa earn their place in the 3rd round of the Carling Cup the hard way thanks to a late goal each from Eric Lichaj (80′) and Nathan Delfouneso (88′) from the bench.
It's a game I've yet to see anything from first hand, but it sounds like we dominated the game pretty much in the manner you'd expect over a struggling League Two side, but were frustrated by some fine goalkeeping from 20 year old loanee, David Cornell.

Alex McLeish has rung the changes for this Carling Cup clash, but retained a strong side blending youth and experience.

Aston Villa Hereford 22 Brad Guzan 28 David Cornell 31 Chris Herd 2 Ryan Green 5 Richard Dunne 5 Michael Townsend 21 Ciaran Clark 3 Joe Heath 30 Eric Lichaj 16 Daniel Williams 17 Jean II Makoun 17 Joe Colbeck 25 Barry Bannan 8 Nicky Featherstone 7 Stephen Ireland 14 James Mcquiokin 12 Marc Albrighton 4 Harry Pell 10 Charles N'Zogbia 10 Delroy Facey 9 Darren Bent 7 Stuart Fleetwood Subs Subs 33 Andy Marshall 38 Russell Hoult 32 Nathan Baker 30 Tommy Johnson 23 Habib Beye 19 Kyle McCarthy 34 Shane Lowry 11 Kenny Lunt 28 Jonathan Hogg 31 Lewis Feeley 26 Andreas Weimann 9 Yoann Arquin 14 Nathan Delfouneso 32 Nathan Perkins

Neither side were able to break the deadlock at Craven Cottage in a game that failed to ever spark into life. As the visiting manager, Alex McLeish will rightly be happier with his point, but will have Shay Given to thank for a number of important saves and might be concerned about the lack of any real threat at the opposite end today.

The new 2011/12 Premier League season is finally here! It's the battle of the new managers at Craven Cottage today, although Martin Jol does have several competitive games under his belt in the Europa League.

Here are the confirmed line-ups for both sides:

Fulham Aston Villa 1 Mark Schwarzer 1 Shay Given 18 Aaron Hughes 2 Luke Young 14 Philippe Senderos 6 James Collins 5 Brede Hangeland 5 Richard Dunne 7 John Arne Riise 3 Stephen Warnock 16 Damien Duff 10 Charles N'Zogbia 20 Dickson Etuhu 16 Fabian Delph 13 Danny Murphy 19 Stiliyan Petrov 23 Clint Dempsey 18 Emile Heskey 8 Andrew Johnson 11 Gabriel Agbonlahor 25 Bobby Zamora 9 Darren Bent Subs Subs 38 Neil Etheridge 22 Brad Guzan 2 Stephen Kelly 21 Ciaran Clark 6 Chris Baird 7 Stephen Ireland 28 Matthew Briggs 17 Jean II Makoun 4 Steve Sidwell 12 Marc Albrighton 10 Pajtim Kasami 25 Barry Bannan 30 Moussa Dembele 14 Nathan Delfouneso Probable Formation: Castrol Football Prediction Today's other Premier League fixtures:

• Blackburn vs Wolves
• Liverpool vs Sunderland
• QPR vs Bolton
• Wigan vs Norwich
• Newcastle vs Arsenal (1730)

Jean II Makoun has been a hit on and off the pitch from the moment he arrived and he may be about to become something of a cult hero. I'm not entirely sure what's going on here, but Makoun is the star of this music video which appears to be entirely dedicated to him. Better still, he and his friends are rocking out in his Villa shirt, amongst others.

Yes, it's just pre-season. Yes, it's still early days, there's much to be done. Nevertheless, the positive signs continue. The green shoots of recovery are quite possibly poking their heads through the soil.

Darren Bent (who else?) got the only goal of the game in typically oppressive conditions in Hong Kong, but there were encouraging performances all around the pitch.

Aston Villa are taking 24 players to Hong Kong to compete in the Barclays Asia Trophy and the travelling party are en route right now. As the strength and depth of the squad is a hot topic at the moment, I thought it might be interesting to compare this pre-season tournament squad with the squads from the last couple of seasons.

McLeish's first game in charge ended in a comfortable 3-1 at the Bescot thanks to a brace from Darren Bent and rare goal from Emile Heskey, but it could have been much more with several players going close throughout the game, notably Nathan Delfouneso during a strong second half performance.

There is apparently a quote from Alex McLeish doing the rounds this evening which has caused a few knickers to get well and truly twisted. It doesn't take much admittedly, if it's not the colour of socks, it's something else equally earth-shattering. The new gaffer has said something to the effect that he only expects to make one more signing before the season starts.

I've covered the Premier League 25-man rules several times since it first cropped up so I won't dwell on the details in this post. If you recall, last summer we named 22 players within our maximum of 25 players 21 years old or over on January 1st 2010 without any problems with the quota of "home grown" players.

Who Won:
Chelsea: Blues fans must be delighted. Okay, there's an element of risk in paying 50m for a striker who's done little in the past year, but despite buying yachts, art and world cups, Roman still seems interested in Chelsea.
Liverpool: Replacing an in form Torres would be almost impossible, but he hasn't been happy for months and they got 50m for him.

Un-be-lie-va-ble. I must have tried a zillion times to digest the news during the week, I still can't believe it:

THE INFIRMARY IS EMPTY .

No kidding. No hallucination either. Claude Puel announced it in thursday's press conference, and I'm positive he was absolutely, totally serious.

The second half of the season is about to begin, we have our eyes set on that first game against Lorient, but there are a couple of interesting things that have been said or done around the club lately.

Here's a quick roundup:

- Jean II Makoun is on his way to Aston Villa.

The second half of the season is about to begin, we have our eyes set on that first game against Lorient, but there are a couple of interesting things that have been said or done around the club lately.

Here's a quick roundup:

- Jean II Makoun is on his way to Aston Villa.