On to football, Aston Villa won’t be easy opposition. They’re 7 points ahead of us in the table however their last three results LDD. Just this past Wednesday they lost to West Ham, who we beat not so long ago. They’ve hit a bit of a rut in form, however their squad will be smarting from the defeat and will be welcoming Bolton with something to prove.

They probably won’t be smarting as much as Bolton is coming off two straight defeats by a margin of 4-0 by a certain Chelsea F.C. As my father pointed out in his guest post, Davies and Elmander are really starting to work together nicely. Our midfield is also gelling quite well. Overall we’re shaping up to be a rather good team and I think we have a decent chance against Aston Villa.

I’m hoping we at least get a draw, after all we will be away. So I know that was one of the worst, least in depth match previews I’ve done, but I have about a million other things to do so apologies! I’ll be back as soon as possible, maybe I’ll try to steal wireless from the neighbors or something in England and sneak a post in. Til then.

Yes Kevin dear, you are number 1.

Hello again, it seems as though I’ve been posting a lot lately, to match the Trotter’s busy schedule. Chelsea will be paying us a visit this Saturday, a mere 72 hours after we saw them last. And trust me, I haven’t missed them. Here’s a link to the BBC’s preview of the match. They’re not overly optimistic for Bolton’s plight.

Not only have Chelsea kept a clean sheet in their last three games, but they’ve also scored a total of 13 goals (which is about as much as Bolton’s scored this season). There is no doubt that Chelsea are in terrifyingly good form right now.

Bolton will, however, have the aid of our goalkeeper and one of our top scorers (Super Kevin Davies). Rio Ferdinand called Davies one of the three toughest opponents he’s ever played, citing his pure physicality.
And it’s true, Kev is one tough bloke, he required 2 stitches above his left eye after the Manchester United game, but refused to come off the pitch, and then during the Everton game he needed 3 stitches above his right eye, and still refused to come off. As Gary Megson so kindly pointed out, he is an absolute model professional, on an off the pitch. It’ll be good to have our skipper back.

Things will definitely look better for Bolton on Saturday, our injury list will be down to Joey O’Brien and Sean Davies, so our nearly full (albeit small) squad will be available, and hopefully rearing to go.

After Wednesday’s disaster I am hoping that Wanderers will want their pride back. I hope they rise to the occasion and take this for what it is: a chance to play a quality game of football, not a chance for us to get our pants beaten off (again).

This weekend provides us with 3 more northwest derbies (there are 7 northwest teams in the Prem). Everton are making the daunting (and I say that with my tongue firmly implanted in my cheek) 40 mile trip to the Reebok. This is a bit of a clash of the has-beens (and I hope Everton fans will forgive me for saying that). Both Bolton and Everton used to be amongst the most respected teams in the league, granted Everton much more recently than Bolton, and both had a horrifying start to the season. However both have also picked up their broken form and mended it a bit, though Everton more so than Bolton. Everton’s last six league result have been DDWWWL, while Bolton have LDWDWL.

Bolton have a nightmare run of fixtures this October (Tottenham, Manchest United, Everton, Chelsea twice, Aston Villa), and Everton at home just may be a golden chance to pick up points. Everton’s last game against newly promoted Wolves was not an overly inspiring performance, although it picked up quite a bit in the second half. Despite the Toffees lack of convincing attacks, if you’ve watched Bolton at all this season (and yes I am among the unfortunate few who have), you know Bolton have one of the least convincing back four in the league. Though it looks fairly good on paper (Jlloyd Samuel, Gary Cahill, Zat Knight, and Sam Ricketts) it is absolutely horrorshow on the pitch. They don’t mark the man, and if they are there’s three of them on one player leaving the goal completely open. Granted half of them (Knight and Ricketts) have only been with Bolton for 10 games, but still you would think that they could learn to play together in that time period. You’d be wrong.

On a similar note, can anyone see any reason at all to start Ricketts ahead of Gretar Steinsson? Steinsson was one of the most reliable players last season, had a great work rate, and made a lot of chances with his lovely long balls. Ricketts has been wholly unconvincing to me, making at least 2 or 3 mistakes that even I couldn’t make every game (and trust me when I say I am complete rubbish at football. Probably worse than ‘Arry’s missus).

This is definitely one of those games that could go either way. And by either way I mean Bolton will either lose or draw. I very much doubt that Bolton will come away with the three points we very much need, however it’s pretty possible we could sneak a draw out.

UPDATE: Here the link to the BBC I promised. Be sure to pop on over for a collection of semi-pertinent statistics.

We could very well win this,and it would take a lot of pressure off Megson if we did. The home crowd has recently become volatile, so a good show would woo the booers back into silence (or productive singing). Gary Cahill and Megson have both mentioned the effect the booing has on the players, and although I have little to no respect for Megson, I have quite a bit for Cahill. Most Bolton fans like Cahill, he’s a likable bloke, and I’m glad he’s stepped into the leadership position saying (albeit rather passively) that it is having a negative effect on the players and needs to stop (alright I’m paraphrasing, he didn’t use forceful language like that).

Unfortunately the whole match will be played while I’m in school (damn you 6 hour time difference!) but I’ll be doing a lot of research/highlights watching and I’ll bring you my opinion of the game afterward. Come on you Whites!

Stoke have won 2, drawn 1 and lost 2 so far this season (this is excluding their FA Cup win against Leyton Orient, it is Leyton Orient after all), which is markedly better than Bolton’s 1 draw and 3 losses, however I think last weekend’s win against Portsmouth will have rallied the team. Things have not been too happy over at the Reebok, what with all the booing fans, and Megson’s soulless gingerness and we definitely need to win at home (hopefully in front of people this time, our attendances have been exceedingly poor this season), things are getting too depressing. And an interesting, if fairly meaningless statistic: Stoke have not won a top flight game at the Reebok ever, and the last time they won away to the Wanderers was in 1963 at Burnden Park.

This has quite a bit to do with Stoke’s horrendous away form (last season they only got 10 points from away matches, only 6 of those 10 points were from wins). They are quite dangerous from set pieces which is definitely one of our weaknesses so we’ll have to watch out for that. I am pretty optimistic about this match, I reckon at the very least we can get a point, and fingers crossed for three. Ricardo Gardner should be coming back from injury and when he’s in form he adds so much to our ability to go forward with his wonderful long balls and connecting play. Hopefully we get another win and buoyed for our trip to Birmingham (doesn’t everyone need to be buoyed before a trip to Birmingham? It’s a pretty depressing city*) next weekend.

Saturday: Arsenal 2-0 Wigan, Aston Villa 1-0 Portsmouth, Bolton 2-1 Stoke, Burnley 1-1 Sunderland, Hull 0-0 Birmingham, West Ham 1-2 Liverpool
Sunday: Chelsea 3-2 Tottenham, Everton 2-1 Blackburn, Manchester United 4-3 Manchester City, Wolverhampton 1-3 Fulham

*Disclaimer: I’m sure Birmingham is perfectly nice if you’re not just zipping by it on the motorway. I don’t want to offend any Brummies.

So basically I have to get on a plane in about an hour and have somehow procrastinated til now to do my preview so it was be a bit rushed/short. I realize now that that time I took to do my nails last night, could’ve been spent doing this. Oh well, it all comes together in retrospect doesn’t it? Anyway here goes:

The Wanderers embark on the longest trip of the season to visit Portsmouth, who are also the only club below Bolton on the table (both teams with no points, Portsmouth with a -6 goal difference, and Bolton with -3). Portsmouth are one of the teams who I think really could go down, they haven’t looked convincing for about 6 months now and lost 10 senior players in the transfer window, including Sol Campbell, Peter Crouch, and Glen Johnson. Both teams will be desperate for points, Portsmouth having played four games with no points, and Bolton with three. Our performance against Liverpool was very encouraging, now all we need to do is bring the passion against one of the best clubs in the league to one of the worst.

Megson will have been hearing the chants from the stands, I’m sure he knows just how unpopular he is with the Bolton fans, and I think his job rests upon the performance of the team in the next 4 games (which are Portsmouth (A), Stoke (H), Birmingham (A), and Tottenham (H)). A weak Pompey team should prove just what Elmander needs to get his ego-boosting goal (I have the hope that if he can get just one goal, his confidence will build and he’ll start scoring more regularly). Also it will give our new signings a chance to shine against unconvincing oppo. So fingers crossed that this will be the game where the Wanderers get their confidence boosted and learn to play together.
1-3
I reckon our offense will finally click together, with two good goals after a first scrappy one, however I also tihnk our defense is a bit leaky so Portsmouth to pull one back. I know this is optimistic, but hey. as a Bolton fan I’ve got to look on the bright side!
Fratton Park is a great old stadium and the atmosphere should be good, so good luck to the fans making the 515 mile round trip! Sing loud for me!

The Blades have picked up one point in the past three games, and while this form is utter crap, the Whites haven’t picked up any in the past three. It’s actually a bit frightening going into this game. Six games ago there was talk of us with a chance of getting into European football. This idea has been scrambled and now we’re hoping to hang on to UEFA Cup Footy. Poor. Absolutely piss poor.

We will have Kevin Davies back, and hopefully he’ll be able to go a bit longer than he did against ManUre. We also hope to have Faye back from injury, however we will be without the great Ivan Campo. Campo picked up his tenth yellow card of the season, and consequently will miss this match against the Blades. On a lighter note, Hulse is out through injury. And let’s face it. Hulse was fifty-percent of that team.

Bolton Wanderers 2 – 0 Sheffield United. El-Hadji Diouf, and Anelka are due.

Saturday sees the fifth placed Wanderers take on a tip-top Manchester United side at Old Trafford. Bolton face an uphill battle, but it would be a little less steep with the help of Davies upfront. Unfortunately according to Big Sam, it’s probably a bit too soon to see Davies back in the line up as he “hasn’t been able to kick a ball” in the time that he’s been injured. Undoubtedly it would be too soon to see Davies back in. No need to jeopardize another injury facing an already tough match.

Although difficult, the Wanderers will look to put two recent defeats to Spurs and Blackburn behind them and do their best to collect at least a point from Man U. As much as I’d love to see the Whites take some points from the league leaders, and keep some distance between them and sixth place, I’m afraid it won’t happen. Three – one to Manchester United. Hope I’m wrong.