Albion's derby double header assessed

When this seasons football fixtures came out most baggies fans looked at this week with either glee or trepidation depending on your own view point on derby games,

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Since the age of seven I have been surrounded by fans of both Villa and Wolves and derby games meant either ridicule for a couple of weeks or sheer elation.

I have always had the ability to banter with the best of them and I am big enough and ugly enough to handle it when we have lost, but I must admit I hate it when we have lost. I live in Penn Wolverhampton and work in Birmingham and play football with a mixture of local club fans, so I will not be short of people wanting to air their views on what happens in the derby games.

For me the Wolves game is the bigger of the two, but I appreciate that for many fans the Villa are seen as their biggest derby and they are first up in our local double header.

Villa have surprisingly struggled since the departure of Martin O`Neill and currently find themselves below us in the league. If I am honest I do not expect them to finish in the bottom half of the league come May as they have some wonderful players amongst an expensively assembled squad.

However their form of late has been patchy at best and with ourselves riding on the back of back to back league wins I am hoping our momentum will continue this weekend and into next week.

If you offered me a draw right now against Villa I would tear your arm off and bank the point, yet many Baggie fans I have spoken to this week see tomorrows game as a rare opportunity to beat Villa. This fixture has not been kind to us over the years, with only Paul Robinson's late, headed equaliser providing a ray of light. But with Villa`s inconsistent form and injury to key players Roberto Di Matteo could see this game as an opportunity to end our Villa hoodoo. I think that last sentence is a sign of the progress we have made as a club, but if we are to beat Villa tomorrow I believe we must approach the game in a certain way.

Our strength lies in our ability to attack teams, away games at Everton, Manchester United and Arsenal have proved that we can score goals against anyone in this league. Only Manchester City and Arsenal have scored more goals than us on their travels this season and I hope the flow of goals doesn't stop tomorrow.

Basically I want us to go and have a go at them from the start and if we could score first I envisage their fans becoming somewhat restless. Our head coach will have a number of team selection issues for tomorrow's game with both Youssouf Mulumbu (back from suspension) and Nicky Shorey (recovering from illness) available for selection. I would play both, dropping Marek Cech and James Morrison onto the bench from last Sunday's starting XI.

It would be harsh on Jimmy as he hasn't played badly, but Mulumbu`s defensive capabilities will be needed. Yet there is also the age old saying of "not changing a winning side" niggling away in the back of my mind, either way I am sure Roberto is glad of having choices available.

The game will throw up some interesting personal duels that will have a big impact on the result. Somen Tchoyi against Stephen Warnock will be one of them. Somen looks a nightmare to play against, big, quick, completely unpredictable, and with goals in his last two league games he is a constant threat.

Another player with goals to his name is Peter Odemwingie. I am sure his performance last Sunday did not go unnoticed in the Villa camp and I am predicting a rough welcome to the game tomorrow from Richard Dunne and James Collins.

Long high balls up to St Peter tomorrow will be useless as the Villa centre backs will head them away all day long, but if we can get the ball into his feet and get the back four of Villa turning I believe our pace will give them real problems. Pace is something we have all over the park, and Jerome Thomas will be relishing the opportunity to run at Luke Young.

The truth is that both Villa and Wolves next week need the points more than we do and I am hoping that they feel the pressure to get three points as a heavy burden and we play with the freedom our last two wins has given us.

I said at the start of the season that the local derbies will have a big say on what we achieve this season, we have already beaten Blues and remain the highest placed Midlands team in the league.

The team that Roberto, Jeremy, and Ashworth have put together is certainly entertaining and our ability to score goals is the backbone of our results.

So there you have it, in my opinion we should attack, attack, attack, and play to our strengths, if we can out score the opposition who cares about clean sheets?

Up the Baggies.