Proper football is back, it's Everton and competition winner

Did I read something last night that that is it for international breaks until March? I hope so. I love football and I think I'm proud to be English, but I'm not really that interested in the national side and whenever these breaks come about, it's just an extension to the summer for me.

I mean, we know right now what's not going to happen next year in France. Don't get me wrong, I'll watch the matches as they're competitive, but I'm not going to engage in the circus that follows it and I'm certainly not going to buy into the optimism that is sure to come.

And that's that written. Again. I think you all know my views on the national side, so I'm not going to write it again. I will focus on Aston Villa and in particular this weekend, because it's back baby. And we're off to Everton and I think we can get something. I think anything is possible right now, because I've bought into all the Aston Villa optimism around our new manager.

And he's had a bit of time. Sadly he's not going to be able to play Jordan Amavi as he's ruled out for the rest of the season with a cruciate knee ligament injury. It's not nice and it's not great for us, but we have cover and this is one of the things I don't think will impact us as badly as it could have done because I think our new manager is going to focus on the system and way of playing rather than individuals.

But individuals help. The better the player or more intelligent the player, the easier it is for that player to play the way the manager wants. But it's about a system now and I think we're going to see a very similar setup against Everton as we saw against Manchester City. I think it stopped them from scoring and that was an issue, so why would the manager change that?

I think what we'll see this weekend is a more confident display and a group of players that know what their role is. And I think there is every chance we might see one or two players that we didn't expect to see.

Competition winner

So, we had a competition the other day; guess the attendance of the first Sweden v Denmark match to win a Saville Rogue Aston Villa scarf. Well, the attendance was 49,053 and the winner is Mike who was 68 away with his guess of 48,985. I'm looking up your email address and you'll be getting a mail from me soon - I need your address.

And with all that written, there is a preview post coming on Saturday morning, but have I missed something Aston Villa that really matters this week? If I have, please let me know below. I'm keen to learn.