The club is flying high after picking up its first home win since March. Regrettably, I was unable to watch the Swansea match, but by all accounts the performance and result were everything that could’ve been hoped for.

Things are looking up in the short term and the long term as well. Consider that Villa have achieved these results with two players on £40,000 a week who were not in the squad and are out of contract at the end of the season in Richard Dunne and Steven Warnock. If the club can find anybody to take Alan Hutton, that’s another £30,000 off the wage bill. With Brad Guzan showing no signs of relinquishing his spot, Shay Given might leave and replaced with a cheaper goalkeeper to act as cover.

The club figures to have a bit of money coming off the books. Assuming the board gives the manager a similar-sized transfer kitty, the club could bring in a big player on big wages. This summer was all about building depth, perhaps the focus can now shift to quality. Manchester City has a versatile midfielder with a huge workrate that would be perfect for a Paul Lambert team. There’s also a chance he might not be offered a new contract. I’d love for James Milner to return to the club if the stars were to align.

Getting back to the short term, with a league match at Southampton on Saturday, followed by a trip to Eastlands on Tuesday in the Capital One Cup, it will be interesting to see how Lambert rotates the squad. I can’t imagine he would send out a weakened team in the cup like Gerard Houllier.

If this were Football Manager, I’d deploy an attack-minded team on Saturday along the lines of Guzan, Lowton, Clark, Vlaar, Lichaj, El Ahmadi, Ireland, Bannan, N’Zogbia, Wiemann, and Bent. A few of those players might find a bit of form against a poor Southampton team.

Against City I’d take a page out of the Martin O’Neill playbook: defend in banks of four, hit on the counter on the flanks whenever possible, and otherwise bypass the midfield. I’d start Guzan, Lowton, Vlaar, Baker, Bennett, Holman, El Ahmedi, Clark, Albrighton, Agbonlahor, Benteke. If Marc isn’t ready to go or can’t go 90 minutes I’d play N’Zogbia. Also if the club has confidence in Ashley Westwood, and doesn’t want to break up the CB pairing, I wouldn’t object to that either. I’m also assuming, probably safely, that Fabian Delph isn’t fit either. Bent figures to be isolated, so I’d rather have Gabby’s pace and workrate. He and Benteke figure to complement each other well. I also like the idea of making City deal with a large, physical, and quick striker they are unfamiliar with.

The next week figures to be a lot of fun. It’s great to be able to enjoy our club again and not watch out of a sense of obligation. Hopefully, catching City early in the competition will be to our advantage. If we can find a way to get past them, the cup might be winnable.

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