I was perusing the betting sites, online, and realized that the Gunners are favored at a higher rate than Chelsea over Birmingham City. Now either the Gunners are playing better or Villa is playing worse. And to play worse than City says alot, as I watched one of the most pathetic efforts in professional football, when City got destroyed 7-0 to Liverpool. I digress, but if there was ever a match to play some of the newer acquisitions, this may be it.

Villa have had two poor showings recently. 11 days ago they were beaten, 4-1, to Everton. The performance sparked the spontaneous chanting, “O’Leary Out!”, from the fans. This last weekend they were part of a dreary tie that ended 0-0 to Fulham. Now Fulham are the League’s worst road team and actually are the countries worst road team. Villa could not even buy a goal, at home against Fulham! “O’Leary Out, O’Leary Out!”

A couple of years back, David O’Leary had inspired a limited Villa squad to do great things. Villa finished well above where they were expected and O’Leary seemed to defend his honor and his record with Leeds. Now the fans want him gone. He’s had some money to spend and time to create a team and his team is falling short of new expectations. A couple of years back there was talk of Wenger being swayed to Madrid and who would take his place. I was fully in support of O’Leary coming back to the halls of Highbury and leading this great club. Now if the opportunity were to occur I’d have to question that decision.

O’Leary has had alot of injuries and been forced to contend with alot of different formations. It’s as if he has had to experiment at every turn and the chemistry has never worked. Is this a manager’s fault?Is it just bad luck? Is it fair to blame him for something that ultimately he may not have been able to control? Perhaps not, but in the world of football it is only the results that matter and O’Leary is taking the blame for them.