Recently by Luke Wilkins

So with another Video Blog up later in the week to go into more depth, here is my review of the big weekends sporting action, starting with the Curse of the Aston Villa!

It was only on Friday that I paid a visit to Villa's training ground to chat to Ashley Young and Martin O'Neill, and confidence was high amongst the villa players and management team ahead of the clash at the Emirates even though MON had never beaten arsenal in all his attempts trying. I knew I was tempting fate, why did I have to visit them this week ahead of their match against my beloved Arsenal??

I joked about the "Curse of Bodymoor Heath" with my colleagues on Friday, saying wouldn't it be funny, if they now went and beat the Gooners? And damn it they did, those pesky Villans, and if it wasn't that man Ashley Young who had a stormer as well, winning a pen and setting up the first goal.............D'agnabbit!

What does this say about Arsenals title credentials as they are now 9 points behind the leaders Liverpool, and more importantly can't seem to find any consistency, and the Emirates is becoming a very easy place to go to and come away with some points. My solution is simple, Wenger, play the kids, put Vela, Ramsey and Wilshere in, and just sit back and watch them dominate the premiership for the next 14 years...................go on!

As for Villa, there are lots of positive sto take from this weekends game after last weeks damp squib with 'Boro, although I feel Milner has a point to prove, and you wonder what will happen to their first team if a few injuries occur to key players......maybe MON should buy up the Arsenal reserves?? There is a credit crunch on after all; maybe he could get the players on some sort of 3 for 2 deal??

So with Arsenal losing, at least I would have the rugby to cheer me up, as England looked to continue their winning ways under the new Johnson era against an Australian team desperate for revenge after their unceremonious dumping out of the World Cup against us a year ago.

Another 72 hours of weekend living has passed, and I know I say this most weekends, but wow, once again there was simply an amazing amount of sporting action to absorb, and absorb I did (like the incredible sport absorbing man that I am)!!!

Sunday afternoon saw the heavens open, but despite the deluge, I was pumped about seeing my first Villa home game, and thanks to the lovely people at Villa Park who sorted out my press passes (and free coffee and cakes at half time........sweet!), because it was an amazing experience.

Sure Villa didn't play that great, in fact, they were terrible in possession, lacking any urgency in the final third, although this may have been down to the dreadful weather conditions, and they were made to regret it by clinical finishing from Sanli Tuncay, who only had two sniffs at goal (courtesy of some comical Villa defending) but took them both.

That's right I am on camera again, I did my second video blog for the Sunday Mercury this week chatting to video journalist Jonny Greatrex - check it out!

Wow, I have felt some highs and lows in sport over the years, but nothing has come close to the low I felt when the cheeky Vettel decided to overtake Lewis Hamilton on Sunday with two laps to go at the Brazilian Grand Prix, and condemn Lewis Hamilton to a heartbreaking second place in the Formula One World Championships once again.

But then my new Hero Timo Glock, who decided against changing to wets, and was slipping and sliding all over the shop, offered Hamilton back the Championship on a platter at the very last corner, and Lewis wasn't going to miss out!

I felt sorry for the Ferrari guys as they celebrated thinking they had defeated the Englishman, but it would have been a travesty if Lewis had not emerged victorious, as he is the future of Formula One, and there is no one out there with anywhere near as much talent as the incredibly brave Brit!

This weekend also saw the Stanford Series come to an end in a complete farce, with England being destroyed by a team who were solely interested in the money, it brought an end to a farce of a tournament that I actually had quite high hopes for, and hopefully signals the end of these kind of "Packer Circus" style distractions......... although it does make you wonder what does motivate the English players, it's obviously not money!

And finally my beloved Arsenal came unstuck against a dogged Stoke side in the footy, as one man shone above all others, but not for his tackling, speed, skill or ability to finish, but his ability to chuck a ball 40 yards!

I am not complaining, at the end of the day you play to your strengths, but Rory Delap is a one off, and it will be interesting to see how many clubs might try and buy him in the January transfer window, because if he carries on like this, (he has 8 assists already) he will actually finish up as the Premierships top Playmaker by the end of the year!!

This week I am mostly excited about going to see Villa on Saturday, thanks to the lovely people at Villa Park who have invited me along, and I also met Feeder today ahead of their gig at the Academy, here is me with Mark and Taka, as Grant had a sore throat, but I wore a Welsh shirt to make up for it.................ughhhhhhhhhhhhh.............time for a shower!!!!

Now you can see me in my natural environment!This was shot recently when the guys from the Sunday Mercury dropped into our offices with the winner of the 'Win a Day at Kerrang' competition....

Firstly, I apologise for this week's blog being quite short and sharp, but I am having one of the busiest weeks on ever!

On the sport front, my main feelings this week have been towards the once great Tottenham Hotspur, and those feelings are not of sympathy, nor of charitable intentions, oh no...............I'm laughing!!

As an Arsenal fan, each year you expect the other team in North London's supporters to get excited, every year they seem to be getting better, and with the signings they made over the summer, and with their "Saviour" Juande Ramos at the helm, all my so called mates who wear the white top were lording it over me in the summer!

They all thought with Modric, Bentley, and Dos Santos, they would finally become the bigger club in the area, and surpass the years of work that Wenger has put into developing and building the current squad.

Hahahahahahaha is all I can say! (I know that's harsh, but it is funny!) With 2 points from 8 games, they have recorded their worst start to the football league since........well ever. There signings have not settled, their strike force is about as threatening as Mrs Doubtfire, and the morale is at an all time low.

In the interest of fair play, normally I would analyse why this is, and talk about how they can improve, but for once, I am simply going to enjoy it, and long may it continue!

Now to explain why I am so hectic this week! Yesterday I was down at RAF Honiton in Bury ST Edmunds taking a couple of lucky Kerrang winners down to fire some guns on the range, and then do the assault course.

Wow, what a day, not only did I have so much fun, I kicked ass at the assault course (even if the first time round my vertigo did kick in kind of ruining my macho image as I had to hold the hand of the instructor on the 10m beam, by the time we did the proper run I nailed it!), met some very cool people and more importantly they let me keep the flight suit, that I am still wearing now!

Today I am just about to shoot off to the gym, then I am off to spend the day with our Sunday Mercury winner to show him the day in the life of a radio presenter(eat, sleep, talk etc) and hang out with the Pigeon Detectives who are doing a Live at Kerrang session.

Next week I hopefully won't be too crazy so I can get back to my normal blogage!!

England, Booing and why we love a moan!

There is nothing quite like an England football game to get the nation moaning, honestly, with the credit crunch, global warming and the terror threat, you'd think we would have enough to be concerned about, but no, still there is nothing as good as a bit of pessimistic National team bashing!

If being miserable were an Olympic sport, we would undoubtedly have more gold medals in it than Michael Phelps could fit in his Speedos!

Before the match, the talk was not about whether we could build upon our amazing start to the campaign, not about our boy wonder Theo Walcott, but about whether Lampard and Gerrard could play together, and constant reminders that as fans we need to cheer our boys on!!

When the game finally did kick off, I thought Capello's 4-3-3 was not such a bad formation, sure we didn't have many chances, but we looked comfortable, and when playing minnows, it's all about patience. After half time, the Italian changed to a 4-4-2 formation, which yielded 5 goals, but it must be said, without Lampard or Gerrard playing that holding midfield role, we did look exposed in front of the back four. But we won...........easily............lest we forget that! Now let's address those moaning issues.

So I wrote my column on Sunday about how Villa's game with Chelsea's would be a great way to see how far Martin O'Neill's side have come to breaking into the elusive, magical, and impregnable top four. I really wanted Villa to win, but oh my goodness, at times on Sunday afternoon it was like boys against men, Chelsea eventually running out 2-0 winners, but they could have and should have had more.
So what does this mean for a Villa side with Champions league aspirations?

Well first up you have to admit, that they are a very good side, but the difference between themselves and Scholari's men was vast at the weekend, Chelsea are world class in all departments, and while I can see Curtis Davies turning a top English defender in the future, it must be said, compared to Chelsea's unknown fill in at the back Ivanovic, he looked about as confident and as assured as Gordon Brown. So work still do be done for Villa, but with O'Neill at the helm, you can actually see them taking this result and coming back stronger, and it will be interesting to see how the big clubs do at Villa Park.

So how about the other team I tipped to break the monopoly at the top Man City? Well they fared much better, going 2-0 ahead against Liverpool at Eastlands, and looking good, but after a red card, they were witness to an incredible Reds fight back, which should go some way to re affirming their title ambitions.

Man City do look good, but at the moment, they are more a collective of extremely talented individuals, while Liverpool showed that they can play much better as a team, and you know it's going to be your day when even Dirk "I like running, but I couldn't hit the white cliffs of Dover" Kuyt hits the back of the net. So the moral of the story? Billions may allow you to knock on the door of the big boys, but until you can get the most out of your players as a collective, you're simply not going to be let in!

It's not often that I manage to go a whole weekend without having something to cheer, this may be due to the fact that I have, from a young age, supported Arsenal at football, Leicester Tigers in rugby, and Surrey in Cricket, but this weekend was about as bad as it can get!

Surrey managed to get them relegated from County Cricket's first division, a result which although it was written on the cards a few weeks ago, is a huge shock, as they only won the 1st Division championship back in 2002, and romped to the Division 2 title two years ago, and have perennially been one of the major forces in the domestic scene.

Ah well, at least it was an exciting end to a tournament that is constantly getting stick from the powers that bad to be reformed, as it has no relevance today, something that seemed complete nonsense as with the final round of games being played, the title could have gone to no less than 5 teams, although trying to keep track of which team needed which bonus points, who was going to win, and what that would do to the table was about as easy as juggling chainsaws, blindfolded, while walking across the grand canyon on a tightrope - in slippers - you get the point!

Sunday afternoon, 2pm, and I settled down to watch my first Baggies vs. Villa match since moving to Birmingham, and I wasn't disappointed! I had heard of the passion involved in this game, and it was great to see first hand how much it means to the fans, players, and especially the managers, as Marin O Neill resembled a kangaroo on steroids with the amount of jumping up and down he did on the sidelines.

The fans created an incredible atmosphere within the Hawthorns, and with Villa playing their 3rd game in 5 days, an upset was on the cards, but it was not meant to be as the naivety of centre back Leon Barnett cost the Baggies the game.

I feel sorry for Barnett, he wasn't due to play until Meite injured himself in the pre game warm up, but there is no excuse for his terrible marking that led to Carew's goal, and I can think of better players to pass the ball to unmarked about 20 yards from goal than Agbonlahor.

Credit though to West Brom for fighting to get back into the game, and Morrison's goal was no more than they deserved, but it has to be said, Villa are very much looking like a team that will seriously challenge for the Champions League places, while the Baggies do not look like a side destined for trouble - yet!