Villa continue on a roll as Blues and Baggies slip up

By mpanter

Victory at Blackburn on Saturday was a terrific result for the lads and to break a club record with seven straight away wins is fantastic.

Going to Ewood Park was never going to be easy.

Rovers may be struggling in the table but they have had a bit of a resurgence under Big Sam Allardyce and were in desperate need of the points themselves.

But Villa approached the game in the right manner and got their just rewards as a result.

In the last few weeks, your Arsenals, Liverpools and Chelseas have all had blips, drawing too many games, but Villa have kept going.

You now start to look at it and, rather than ask, can Villa scrape into the top four? it's a case of fans asking how far can Villa finish?

I'm sure Martin O'Neill won't be looking at it that way. He certainly won't be getting carried away and he'll be following the old cliche of 'taking each game as it comes'.

Things can change round quickly at the end of the day.

Liverpool had a big lead over Man United at one stage and that soon eroded so we shouldn't get too carried away.

At the same time, it's great that we are going into a week in February where there is so much at stake.

We start with the FA Cup against Everton. I know a lot of people feel the competition no longer has so much of a priority with the big guns but the chance to go to Wembley is something that shouldn't be sniffed at.

It's still a fantastic competition, world renowned, and one that every player should want to win.

The winners of this weekend's tie, depending on a kind draw, will fancy their chances of getting through to at least the semi-finals.

David Moyes has impressed me as a manager at Everton.

He is similar to Martin in a way in that he gets the best out of the players he has got.

The way they have performed without having a recognised striker is commendable and with Tim Cahill up front, there's always a chance they can nick a goal.

On Wednesday, the side face Moscow in the UEFA.

With Chelsea in mind, you wonder what team Martin will put out. The only problem is that when you get to this stage of the competition, it's hard to rest players because the opposition is so good.

Hopefully, though, we have enough strength in depth to make it through on all fronts and keep the ball rolling in all competitions.