So the Premier League season is finally here.

After a tumultuous week for reasons away from football, Aston Villa will travel down to Craven Cottage to kick off their Premier League season. Many eyes will be watching to see how Aston Villa progress, both of Villa fans and the wider community, looking to see if the divisive choice of Alex McLeish will prove to bear fruit.

Of course, we all know that Alex McLeish is not accepted by some groups of the support. Largely this seems to point towards his relegation with Birmingham twice in the space of three years. Some suggest this indicates he will do the same with Villa but, for a moment, step back and realise what any fan saying that is thinking.

What they are doing is essentially suggesting that Aston Villa and Birmingham are, to all intents and purposes, at the same level. Ponder that for a second. I’m sure, if you are a true Villa supporter who looks at things objectively, you will realise that we clearly not of the same level as Birmingham City.

We are a far better team. Thus we are far more likely to achieve more under McLeish than Birmingham did. Consider also for a moment that Alex McLeish managed both a league cup win for Birmingham and a ninth place finish. These are statistics that the naysayers don’t want to promote because it shows McLeish can punch above his weight, and thus ruins their original argument.

Opening Day

Attempting to predict opening day fixtures is something most people try to avoid. They avoid it because there is no real evidence on how a team will line up in the first competitive match because, pre-season aside for a moment, there is no prior form to analyse. Sure, we could look at our stats in friendlies before the season starts, but even these matches are not indicative of where we are.

Why? Well we have had to use friendlies to test out formations, try players in different positions and, in some instances, run with teams that are not indicative of the one that will face Fulham on Saturday. Take for example the Derby game. On the face of it, the loss indicates that we were not good enough, but digging deeper into the players involved and other aspects of the game, and you will realise that the loss isn’t representative of anything. Well beyond the obvious statistic of it being a score in a friendly match we played in the past.

The same can be said for every other friendly match we engaged in over the summer. They don’t show us anything besides how fit our players are. The true test comes against Fulham.

Following pre-season Villa have a full clean bill of health, with Darren Bent, James Collins, and Fabian Delph all available for selection after recent injury issues.

Starting Line-ups

Villa – Given, Young, Dunne, Collins, Warnock, Petrov, Delph, N’Zogbia, Heskey, Agbonlahor, Bent.

Fulham – Schwarzer, Riise, Hughes, Senderos, Hangeland, Murphy, Duff, Etuhu, Johnson, Dempsey, Zamora.

Statistics

Fulham scored the highest percentage of goals from headers (31%) in the 2010-11 Premier League.

Eight of the last 13 Premier League games between Fulham and Villa have ended as draws.

Aston Villa dropped more points (26) from winning positions than any other team in the 2010-11 Premier League.

Fulham conceded the highest percentage of first-half goals (63%) in the 2010-11 Premier League.

The Whites conceded just 23% of their goals from set pieces, the lowest percentage in the top flight.

Aston Villa conceded a joint league-high 14 goals from corners in 2010-11.

The Villans have failed to keep a clean sheet in their last 20 Premier League away games.

Fulham have lost just one of their last nine Premier League home matches.

The Londoners have kept six clean sheets in their last nine matches at Craven Cottage but conceded seven in the last two.

34% of the goals Villa conceded were netted in the final 15 minutes of games, a divisional high in 2010-11.

Odds

Fulham 6/5, Draw 11/5, Aston Villa 5/2

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