These international breaks are like a gathering of extended family – we go through with them out of a sense of obligation and often regard them with indifference or annoyance. Like a Christmas party, sometimes an international break can be unexpectedly pleasant, or it can be a complete disaster depending on the state of your football club, or how your family gets along.
For Villa, this break went reasonably well.
Shay Given and Richard Dunne helped The Republic of Ireland quality for its first major tournament in ten years.
Darren Bent started for England as they defeated the defending World and European Champions.
Gabby Agbonlahor is surely disappointed he was sent home with a niggle before having the chance to earn his first cap since 2009, but the injury is minor and if he can maintain his form his spot in Poland/Ukraine appears to be assured.
Now that this break is over, I for one could not be happier. It seems that the international breaks always come at inopportune times for Aston Villa. Two years ago when we were still a viable contender for Champions League qualification, the club was struggling to score goals compared to the rest of our top 4 rivals. The club thrashed Bolton at home 5-1 in a tremendous display and before they could build on that performance there was an international break.
While beating a promoted side 3-2 at home isn’t as impressive as a result, the club finally started to play the way we all want them to play given the attacking talent on hand. Now that everybody is back and healthy, we can only hope that this can still carry over in North London. As football fans, we all love the rhythm of having matches every weekend and watching our club and thus it will be nice to get back into that routine as the club approaches a more difficult portion of the schedule.
The Monday night match at White Hart lane will be a stern test undoubtedly. Peter Crouch who victimized our back-line last year is happily in Stoke. Rafael Van Der Vaart is still in a white shirt and will surely have to be accounted for.
Speaking of Villa for a moment, this is not the week where Emile Heskey should be in midfield if such a time ever existed. With Jermaine Jenas unable to face his parent club I am afraid that is what we will see.
If Kyle Walker starts for Spurs, and Gabby is fit for us, Gabby could give him fits with his pace with Walker’s defending still a work in progress.
Conversely Gareth Bale being marked by Alan Hutton could be an even larger mismatch for the home side. I expect there to be plenty of goals in this game. Despite all the talk of solidifying the defense, Villa have been leaking goals of late. If this is at the expense of playing better football and creating more chances ourselves, this is a tradeoff most will gladly take.
Win or lose it will be nice to see the club take the pitch again. Seeing a handful of our players play in international matches, England raising expectations after a friendly and uneventful Euro playoffs, and a United States team still searching for an identity, none of it is a substitute for our Villa. Cruelly we have to wait for Monday, and Monday can’t come a moment too soon.
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