Kickin' It: Gabby Agbonlahor receives death threats after tackle of Louis Tomlinson

I understand that the World Cup is neat. But the quest to get to the World Cup? Unbearable. Especially since it comes at the expense of club football just as the season begins. I miss Aston Villa. Thank god they're back on Saturday.

Just The Facts, Please

Form (Last 5, newest first): L L W - -

Results Last Week: none

Upcoming Fixtures:

• First Team:
  Newcastle United (EPL) - Saturday, September 14, 1500 GMT, 1000 Eastern

Tracking Villa's Progress

A look at how Aston Villa are doing compared to corresponding fixtures from last season. For a more full explanation of the corresponding fixtures table, see here.

Excited to actually get a chance to update this next week. Last year, when hosting Newcastle, Aston Villa lost 1-2. So anything is an improvement. In fact, so long as Aston Villa can get more than 4 points from their next 7 fixtures, they will have improved over last season.

Injuries

New Injuries Last Week:

• none

Looking Ahead

• Aston Villa get ready to begin their season after a nice 3-match preseason in which they faced Arsenal, Chelsea, and Liverpool. Wait, what's that? You mean to tell me that was part of the season? But that was ages ago. Ugh.
• Newcastle United are an amazing mess right now, and it's just absolutely delightful. They decided to go the very continental route of bringing in a Director of Football. The idea here is: wow, it's tough to manage AND deal with personnel decisions. Maybe it'd be better if we let Alan Pardew just focus on the game and have Joe Kinnear make the moves. Cool. Great idea everyone.
  
  Except that's not what happened. After being signed onto the position in June, Kinnear made precisely one signing for the club. Loic Remy has joined Newcastle. On loan. Great job, Joe.
• And the really funny part? It's not as if Newcastle were a perfect squad who could sit back and rest on their laurels. Last year they finished one spot below Aston Villa (a damning statement, to be sure) and this year they don't look much better. Sure, they've got one draw and one win and sit one spot above Villa, but they've done so on a normal schedule (read: not three matches in one week) that was easier. Sure, they faced Manchester United at Ethiad, but they got slaughtered 4-0. Then, they got their draw, a thrilling 0-0 affair against West Ham at Newcastle. They followed this up with an showing of offensive firepower, beating Fulham 1-0 at St. Jame's Park. So yeah. Three matches. Two pretty easy. One goal.
• Did I mention that their only signing was Loic Remy? This team is hilarious.
• So Aston Villa are probably going to lose. Dammit.

Miscellany

• Sorry to bury the lede, but the format demands it: Gabby Agbonlahor made a member (Louis Tomlinson) of One Direction vomit after a not-nearly-as-brutal-as-everyone-is-making-it-out-to-be tackle in the Stiliyan Petrov testimonial match. You can see the tackle here. Gabby, of course, received death threats and wishes of cancer from fans of the band.
  
  I'm hesitant to say that Gabby was doing God's work, because my email address is on this site and I don't want to receive death threats either. But... you know.
  
  Plus there's the fact that 1) the tackle wasn't that harsh and 2) the two made up and shook hands afterwards. Crisis averted! And just be glad it wasn't Harry.
• In actual news: here's a really great, detailed analysis of Libor Kozak from an Italian journalist. Long story short: loads of potential.
• Here's a neat (sometimes?) look at Aston Villa's long list of big striker signings. It's interesting to see the list, but please don't consider it comprehensive, given that it skips some lad named Darren Bent.