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Aston Villa come into their derby match with Birmingham this weekend having won three of their last five league games and with consecutive wins over Portsmouth and Hull City in their most recent two matches.
Villa’s 0-2 victory over Hull at KC Stadium midweek hoisted the Villains up and over Liverpool and into sixth place in the league. If they can stay in sixth or even seventh this would be enough to guarantee them European football next season as they would qualify for Europa League action.
Yet manager Martin O’Neill and his men still hope to qualify for the Champions League. They can do that by finishing fourth in the Premier League. Now on 61 points, Villa trail fifth place Manchester City by a mere point and current fourth place Tottenham by just three.
Remaining games will be challenging
With three games remaining there is still time for Villa to achieve a Champions League qualifying berth for next season. It will be a tough row to hoe, however, given the competition they face in their final three matches.
Next week Villa play fellow fourth place contenders Manchester City at Eastlands, and on the last game of their season Villa take on Blackburn Rovers at Villa Park.
But for either of those matches to have real significance in the points calculations for fourth Villa must first get past local rivals Birmingham City this weekend.
Nevertheless, Martin O’Neill won’t take any Champions League options off the table quite yet. "We're in the mix. We're going for everything and guaranteed nothing” the Irishman said in a characteristically curious Celtic form of optimism.
Although the Villains are four points off the pace for fourth, the permutations of their fourth place rivals’ schedules reveal some appetizing possibilities.
Manchester City and Tottenham have yet to meet for the final time this season, and both City and Tottenham have tough fixtures this weekend with Spurs facing Manchester United and Manchester City facing Arsenal.
With a little luck and a few more points in their pocket Aston Villa could find themselves in the Champions League yet. But they’ll be facing a team this weekend whose parsimonious attitude in defense has become the hallmark of their game this season.
Birmingham defense solid at St. Andrews; but not so much on the road
Birmingham City established their reputation for solid defending early in the season and they have continued to prove that it’s a reputation well-deserved. Granted, there have been some slip-ups, notably last week’s 5-1 defeat away to Manchester City.
But at home the Blues have been rock solid, and although their recent record is three draws and two losses in their last five games, they haven’t lost a match at home since September.
It is potentially unfortunate for them, therefore, that they meet Aston Villa away at Villa Park this weekend, for Birmingham’s away record is dismal. In 2010 they’ve won only once away from home, and that was against bottom-dwellers Portsmouth.
McLeish and O’Neill are familiar foes
Perhaps Birmingham manager Alex McLeish has something of a personal stake that goes beyond the outcome of this weekend’s match. McLeish’s Glasgow Rangers faced O’Neill’s Celtic on many occasions in the Old Firm derby when Celtic’s fortunes were transcendent. O’Neill more often than not had the upper hand in the Old Firm encounters and the same goes for the Birmingham derbies thus far. Villa have won the last five.
But at the end of the day the Blues will simply be looking to beat Villa and avenge their 0-1 loss last September at St. Andrews. Such a victory, were it to come this weekend, would put paid to Villa’s Champions League ambitions.
