When the Premier League fixtures were announced back in June, I like other Aston Villa fans earmarked the first three games as the first major judgement of Alex McLeish as our manager.

The Fulham, Blackburn, and perhaps most importantly Wolves games were seen as matches that would realistically allow McLeish to win over some sceptical supporters, but on the contrary also carry an equal risk of alienating a large portion of the Villa fan base with any bad results.

I believe that the majority of Aston Villa fans would say Alex McLeish has passed this test, as it were, that these opening three fixtures posed him. The team has remained unbeaten, conceded just one goal, and significantly, avoided defeat against local rivals Wolves.

The first game of the league season away to Fulham may not have got the pulses racing with dazzling champagne football, but it showed primitive signs of improvement from last season’s disappointing campaign despite only finishing 0-0.

The resilience of this opening fixture was recycled into three points in the following match against Blackburn Rovers, where all three strikers in the starting XI scored. The final score of 3-1 to Villa went a long way to winning over some fans that were still unsure about Alex McLeish, and also exhibited the scoring ability of our strike force.

The novelty of playing Hereford in the Carling Cup a few days later allowed McLeish to rest some first team players, and despite having to wait until the final ten minutes for a goal, the final score of 2-0 did no harm at all to Alex McLeish’s growing reputation amongst Aston Villa fans.

Finally, the derby versus Wolverhampton Wanderers on Saturday posed the biggest test of the opened league fixtures. The corresponding fixture last season was notorious for the anti-Houllier banners and booing against him, so McLeish really couldn’t afford to lose this one.

The fact that the team had started the season so well meant that the pressure to avoid defeat in this game was possibly not as intense as it might have been, but the necessity to get a good result against our rivals was as powerful as ever.

Even though the game finished a drab 0-0, there were still enough positives to leave McLeish in the good books of most Villa fans after the opening three matches.

In addition to a pleasing start in the Premier League and the Carling Cup, McLeish has also made some good decisions in the transfer market and in building his squad. The purchases of Shay Given and Charles N’Zogbia already look like great bits of business, with hints from the manager that there may be more to come in before the transfer deadline.

The club may have lost Ashley Young, Stewart Downing and Luke Young during McLeish’s short time in charge, but these are not necessarily totally negative points. The sales of Ashley Young and Stewart Downing made funds available to strengthen the squad as a whole, and the recent sale of Luke Young to QPR will probably prove to be a good move for all parties concerned.

Overall I think Alex McLeish has passed the early tests in the minds of most Villa fans. If by Christmas we are still performing well in the league, and are still in the Carling Cup, then Alex McLeish will have gone a long way to proving wrong those who deemed him not good enough for our great club.

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