Villa v West Ham. Where will the motivation come from?

Just imagine what it will be like in the dressing room today, forty minutes ahead of kick off. All the talk will be about who will own the club by the end of next week and what that will mean to the players and management. As Zola tries to inspire the team, Upson could turn to Parker and say, "I don't think it matters what he thinks now".

Zola sounds down and depressed and is speaking like a man on borrowed time. He has admitted to mistakes and talked about the stresses of the job. That's great for a psychiatrist's couch but you don't want to hear that your leader is depressed on the eve of a battle. As a West Ham fan, it is great to hear Zola say, "My duty is to entertain people. It was my duty as a player and now it is to teach other people to entertain" but I doubt that word "entertainment" featured once in Phil Brown's vocabulary in the build up to yesterday's game at Tottenham. Bugger entertainment, Brown prepared his team to scrap and stifle and nullify and negate. I hated Curbishley but at least the guy was pragmatic when he needed to be. Let's imagine Stanislas loses the ball trying to dribble in his own half this afternoon. Can't he turn to Zola and say, "My duty is to entertain people boss."

Zola goes in to today's game with Nouble leading the line, a player he admits is not ready for the Prem. How inspired must the team feel when they hear Zola say that Nouble "needs to learn the movements but he is on his way"? Great, thinks Parker. I run through walls for the team and the guy up front doesn't know what to do if we get the ball into their box.

Meanwhile, Sears has been ignored. Zola talks about Nouble's progress but says nothing about the former Boy Wonder.

I hold out zero hope for today's game if I am honest. Villa are perfectly equipped to exploit our weaknesses down the flanks and I cannot see how we are going to score goals. I bet Parker is thinking much the same.

What team would I pick? It has to to 4-5-1 I suppose. I will beat the Stanislas drum again but I know Zola won't pick him on the right flank where he belongs, even though that run and shot against Arsenal shows the damage he could cause if used on the correct flank - the right.

My side would be:

Green;
Faubert, Tomkins, Upson, Ilunga (assuming he is fit)
Behrami Parker
Stanislas, Diamanti, Collison
Nouble

I would urge Stanislas to run at the defence and get in crosses and encourage Diamanti and Collison to get into the box at every opportunity. To win, we will need to score three, to draw we need two, so let's attack and to Hell with it! Everything changes next week, one way or another!