5. The stick-it-right-up-'em Scottish crowd
When I was a kid watching games at Ibrox, Parkhead or Hampden I sensed even then "the angry Scottish football crowd". To this day the Scots aren't too keen on the type of football which tends to succeed, ie, methodical, studied and careful in the build-up. Click to continue reading...

Since Randy Lerner appointed Martin O'Neill as Aston Villa manager, the club's fortunes seem to have changed. No, Villa haven't realistically competed for any silverware yet, but there are certainly promising signs at the club. Villa have recently appeared to be a club who are a solid top 6 team, with some promising talent on their books.

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On the 30th May 2004 (before Benitez was appointed), I wrote a post on ThisIsAnfield.com arguing that Martin O Neill should get the Manager's job ahead of Benitez and Jose Mourinho. Five years later and O'Neill is apparently one of the favourites to become the next Liverpool manager. Well, my opinion has not changed: For me, O'neill is the only man for the job. Click to continue reading...

Word is Aston Villa manager Martin O'Neill and Nigel Reo-Coker are back on good terms. That took a while.
A couple months ago the two had one of the biggest spats of the season, over the weekend the boss named the player captain.
Kumbaya.
Now the links:

• Fergie escapes FA punishment (v.

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Martin O'Neill has emerged as the man to replace Rafa Benitez.
American owners Tom Hicks and George Gillett have identified O'Neill to succeed the Spaniard if Liverpool fail to qualify for next season's Champions League.
Hicks, Gillett, and managing director Christian Purslow are standing by beleaguered Benitez despite Liverpool's woeful recent run of form. Click to continue reading...

Latest rumours in the press are that that the Liverpool owners want to replace struggling Benitez with Aston Villa's Martin O'Neill, it is believed Hicks & Gillette are impressed buy the way the Irishman has built a strong squad on limited funds from Randy Learner and is riding high in the Premier League. Click to continue reading...

Just when Rafa Benitez thought things couldn't get any worse, a study published by Foster's today reveals the Liverpool manager is officially one of the most worried managers in the Premiership.

The leading Aussie beer brand analysed the interviews and statements from every Premiership manager since the beginning of the season using its Ozometer, an algorithm developed specifically to analyse language and word sequences to determine how worried or carefree a person is.

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We get sent many Press releases about various products , services and news. This one jumped out at us today and we thing you'll enjoy! We all love the pint of Fosters and the Aussie spirit even more! Just when Rafa Benitez thought things couldn't get any worse, a study published by Foster's today reveals the [. Click to continue reading...

Brad Friedel's understudy Brad Guzan made the most of a rare appearance for Aston Villa, saving one penalty kick in regulation time and three PKs in the tiebreaker in a win over Sunderland that sends Villa to the English League Cup quarterfinals. In Scotland, DaMarcus Beasley saw his first action of the season. Click to continue reading...

At the least, Aston Villa manager Martin O'Neill hinted that #2 keeper Brad Guzan may be set to challenge #1 Brad Friedel after last night's dominant Carling Cup display. The former Chivas USA saw off a penalty in regulation and three more in the shootout to completely foil Sunderland.I'm on the lookout for any highlights, but for now, you can just bask in O'Neill's Guzan fawning. Click to continue reading...

Cup time in Britain, and Brad Guzan took over for Brad Friedel in goal for Aston Villa. They beat Sunderland on penalties after drawing 0-0. Guzan was strong in net, stopping Kenwyne Jones's 85th-minute penalty and then stoop up during the penalty phase where Villa advanced 4-1. "The lads are pretty euphoric, none more so than Mr Guzan," Villa manager Martin O'Neill said. Click to continue reading...

It was a weekend dominated by beach balls, by petty squabbles and by surprise results. Defeats for Chelsea and Liverpool showed the world that the big four monopoly on the Premier League is far from permanent, whilst in Lancashire Blackburn and Burnley re-introduced the nation to their own, explosive rivalry.

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If god came to me and asked me to pick one game where we were going to switch off and let in a late equalizer thereby letting go of 2 points I'd have picked AZ Alkmaar in the Champions League group stages without blinking an eye. This phenomenon was something that I feel was our undoing last season (apart from the fact that we were pretty poor otherwise too).

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After the rather predictable World Cup qualifiers, the more exciting English Premier League football resumes. Week 8 features some noteworthy Premiership football news. Firstly, Liverpool must subdue an in-form Sunderland without Torres and Gerrard. Secondly, Manchester United had a home tie with the always tough Bolton without Wayne Rooney. Click to continue reading...

We have seen Tottenham challenge the top 4 place few years back, then Villa doing the same last season, nut never have we seen so many sides capable of upsetting the title contenders as this season. Manchester City, Tottenham and Aston Villa all look capable of upsetting the odds, especially since Liverpool look to be all over the place at the moment.

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First Star: Brad Friedel was in goal for Aston Villa, 2-1 winners over Chelsea at Villa Park. Chelsea went up in the 15th minute through Didier Drogba, but goals from Richard Dunne (32nd) and James Collins (52nd) gave Villa three points. The win has Villa in sixth-place with 16 points from eight games played. Click to continue reading...

You can watch Aston Villa v Chelsea Live online by signing up with us here on Live Sport Network, the leading source to watch live football on the web.

Aston Villa welcome Chelsea at Villa Park in an early Premier League kickoff on Saturday 17 October 2009 as both teams try to build upon their good starts to the season.

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The Daily Star claims that Rafael Benitez is set to offer Emile Heskey a return to Liverpool in the January transfer window, providing the England striker with a World Cup lifeline in the process.
Heskey has admitted that he will consider leaving Aston Villa if he continues to warm the bench, worried that his lack of first-team football at club level will affect his chances of leading the line for the Three Lions in South Africa. Click to continue reading...

Liverpool boss Rafael Benitez could be ready to step in and save Emile Heskey's World Cup dreams by offering him a move back to Anfield in January, but only on the cheap.
Heskey has admitted he will consider his future when the transfer window reopens, if he continues to warm the bench at Aston Villa, and he has also attracted the interest of Fulham after starting just one Premier League game this season. Click to continue reading...

The World Cup is just around the corner and the players whose national teams have qualified for the biggest tournament in sports are trying to find a way to book themselves a ticket on the plane to South Africa. Some ‘smaller' national teams' coaches face problems as their key players are not getting enough playing time in their clubs, but who could have though Fabio Capello would have one such problem.

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FourFourTwo.com have released their latest football rich list in English football. Where do the Man United owners, manager and players come?
Owners-
1. Lakshmi Mittal, QPR, £18.4bn
2. Sheikh Mansour bin Zayed Al Nahyan, Man City, £17bn
3. Roman Abramovich, Chelsea, £7. Click to continue reading...

It was meant to be the night when Gareth Barry showed Aston Villa just how much they are missing him.

But instead it was Richard Dunne, cast aside by Manchester City almost as an afterthought after Barry's arrival at the City of Manchester Stadium, who proved how strong a character Martin O'Neill has gained.

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I. Manchester City @ Manchester United: Who will get their face stamped on this weekend? No one, that's who - with City star Emmanuel Adebayor suspended. The Manchester Derby on Sunday could be an instant classic - as two Top-4 teams battle it out for bragging rights. Click to continue reading...

Martin O'Neill has backed on-form striker Gabriel Agbonlahor to shoot himself into Fabio Capello's England squad for the World Cup finals in South Africa next year. The Villa forward is currently on the fringes of his national team and missed out on the squads for the recent matches against Slovenia and . Click to continue reading...

Here's Craig Bellamy shoving a pitch invader in the face after the Manchester derby.
But it's far from the only dust up in recent days.
Apparently Aston Villa coach Martin O'Neill and Nigel Reo-Coker got in a heated dispute at training, they claim it was all verbal, but some reports say it got physical. Click to continue reading...

Burned his Villa bridges?

Nigel Reo-Coker has been told to stay away from Villa Park this weekend after Martin O'Neill sent the player home from training yesterday and dropped him for Aston Villa's Barclays Premier League home game against Portsmouth today because the pair had a confrontation.

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The Aston Villa manager, Martin O'Neill, has sent his midfielder Nigel Reo-Coker home from training after an argument on the training ground between the pair.

O'Neill denied reports the pair had grappled each other and claimed they had only a "verbal confrontation".

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. Image via Wikipedia Aston Villa have won the Midlands derby 1-0 against Birmingham at St Andrews. It turned out to be a quiet game with both sides looking like they didn't want to make a mistake. The game lacked clear cut chances. Villa keeper Brad Friedel and opposite number Joe Hart were not troubled until [. Click to continue reading...

Of the 20 clubs in the English Premier League, only 8 have English managers. Four clubs have Scottish managers, and there are two each from Spain, Italy, and Wales. Here is the complete list of Premier League managers by nationality:

8 - England: Sam Allardyce (Bolton), Gary Megson (Bolton), Roy Hodgson (Fulham), Phil Brown (Hull City), Paul Hart (Portsmouth), Steve Bruce (Sunderland), Harry Redknapp (Spurs), Mick McCarthy* (Wolverhampton)

4 - Scotland: Sir Alex Ferguson (Manchester United), Alex McLeish (Birmingham), Owen Coyne (Burnley), David Moyes (Everton)

2 - Italy: Carlo Ancelotti (Chelsea), Gianfranco Zola (West Ham)

2 - Spain: Rafael Benitez (Liverpool), Roberto Martinez (Wigan)

2 - Wales: Mark Hughes (Manchester City), Tony Pulis (Stoke City)

1 - France: Arsene Wenger (Arsenal)

1 - Northern Ireland: Martin O'Neill (Aston Villa)

*Mick McCarthy was born in England, but played internationally for the Republic of Ireland.

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Aston Villa have completed the signing of Ireland defender Richard Dunne after the Premier League ratified his £6million move from Manchester City.
Dunne was unable to finalise his switch to Villa Park on Tuesday despite the paperwork having already been sent off to the Premier League. Click to continue reading...

Liverpool's early season accumulation of three points from a possible nine has prompted the club's title-credential doubters to pen doom-mongering claims, yet former striker Ian Rush has tipped Rafael Benitez's Reds to bounce-back.
A resounding 4-0 win over Stoke City has separated respective 2-1 and 3-1 losses to top of the league Tottenham Hotspur and Martin O'Neill's Aston Villa. Click to continue reading...

Liverpool succumbed to a 3-1 loss at Anfield on Monday evening when a flurry of costly errors were capitalized on by Aston Villa.
A Lucas Leiva own goal, coupled with a Curtis Davies header and an Ashley Young penalty saw the tie swing in Martin O'Neill's men's favour, and Fernando Torres' strike to bring the tie to 2-1 was insufficient to spark the comeback that Rafael Benitez craved. Click to continue reading...

Liverpool boss Rafael Benitez condemned his players for making "too many mistakes" as they slumped to their second Premier League defeat in nine days.
Beaten at Tottenham on the opening weekend, they recovered to over-power Stoke in midweek, only to slump to a disheartening 3-1 home defeat at the hands of a vibrant Aston Villa at Anfield. Click to continue reading...

After their opening-round defeat at Tottenham Hotspur, many a question was raised about Liverpool's title credentials. The departed Xabi Alonso was sorely missed at White Hart Lane, and pundits nationwide wondered aloud whether anyone in Rafael Benitez's squad could fill the void.
Some of those questions were answered with authority on Wednesday night as the Reds stormed to a 4-0 victory over Stoke City, against whom they failed to score a single goal last season. Click to continue reading...

Ah bliss! Great result last night wasn't it? Back to winning ways and how!Four goals scored and none conceded a great nights work by all concerned.Everyone played really well, Gerrard and Johnson in particular.After the lows of the defeat, again, by Spurs its back to the highs of an exhilarating victory against Stoke, the team we could only draw twice against last season which probably cost us the title, revenge is sweet. Click to continue reading...