Fulham Preview (H)

Aston Villa can go third in the Premiership this weekend if results go their way, establishing a geniune claim for a top four finish this season.

Should Manchester United and Arsenal suffer weekend defeats to Manchester City and Chelsea respectively, a win at home against Fulham, winless away in the league this season, could propel the Villians to their highest league position of the season.

Luke Young, John Carew and Carlos Cuellar will face fitness tests in their bids to face the Cottagers, while Brad Friedel looks to break David James' record of consecutive Premier League appearances with his 167th straight start.

Not a bad week in the end.

After the two defeats to Newcastle and Middlesborough, I, for one was sceptical going to into games against Arsenal and Manchester United. Having lost 14 consecutive games in all competitions to United and having not beaten Arsenal away since 1997, I was worried we may be in danger of losing ground on the top four and finding ourselves in a disappointing mid-table position.

How ashamed do I feel now?

The best way Martin O'Neill and the boys could have restored our faith in believing a top four finish is actually on the cards this year is by battering Arsenal at the Emirates and holding the Premiership champions to a draw. We could even have won yesterday had the referee not been "overwhelmed", said O'Neill, at the idea of giving Villa a penalty for a blatant foul by Nemanja Vidic on Gabby Agbonlahor. Four points from six though? I'll take that.

Tricky Times at Villa

Arsenal, Manchester United, John Carew injured and four points separating the bottom 10 teams in the league reads awkwardly for any Villa fan right now.

Arsenal at the Emirates has never really filled me with fear. We've played there twice now and come away with two points when it could easily been six barring two late Arsenal equalisers.

Playing Manchester United is basically forfeiting six points a season, we just can't beat them. I can't see next weekend being any different.

The fact we are only five points off tength place is a little worrying. Four points separates the bottom half of the table and should we fail to obtain any points against two of the top four giants we could see ourselves in a less than favourable position in the league.

John Carew being injured doesn't help, and his absence was more than noticeable in the atrocious Middlesbrough performance.

With two league defeats in a row staring us in the face we can only hope that Martin gets a performance out of the boys on Saturday against the hit and miss Arsenal, giving us some belief to really have a go at United and keep us above any unwanted danger below us in the Premiership.