Villa Name 25-Er, Make That 22, Man Squad

A host of surprises as Aston Villa named their 22-man squad, well ahead of the deadline, which is at 5pm GMT:

Brad Friedel, Brad Guzan, James Collins, Carlos Cuellar, Curtis Davies, Habib Beye, Richard Dunne, Eric Lichaj, Stephen Warnock, Luke Young, Stewart Downing, Jonathan Hogg, Stephen Ireland, Isaiah Osbourne, Stiliyan Petrov, Nigel Reo-Coker, Moustapha Salifou, Steve Sidwell, Ashley Young, Gabriel Agbonlahor, John Carew, Emile Heskey.

Homegrown players? We've got your homegrown players right here, clubs. Our only question is whether Eric Lichaj is truly homegrown, meaning that we've got either 14 or 15 on our squad. Anyone need a Steve Sidwell? Curtis Davies? Emile Heskey? Sorry, you've missed your chance.

With less than two hours left, I haven't yet seen a Manchester City squad. The news this morning seems to be that Roque Santa Cruz is staying now that Robinho was sent to AC Milan--but who else might get left off their bloated squad? They're likely taking advantage of the unlimited under-21s rule, which applies to their newest star, Mario Balotelli.

Of course, Villa will make use of this rule as well--at least, we can hope. Young Villans we'll want to see on the first team, rather than the reserves, include Marc Albrighton, Nathan Delfouneso, and Fabian Delph, if he comes back before his November birthday--which probably isn't likely. But we've got room to add him should he be healthy before January. I wouldn't mind seeing Weimann or Clark as subs, either.