Time for middle classes to stand up and fight

SOCCER ANGLES: At some stage, if the middle classes are to really lead a challenge to the establishment, then there have to be landmark results.

THE HEADLINE greeting morning commuters in Thursday's Daily Telegraphwas: 'Middle Classes Hit Hard'. There have been midweeks when that would appropriate on the back page rather than the front because there have been matches this season and last when the upward ambitions of Aston Villa, Everton and Tottenham Hotspur have been made to look like dreamy end-goals more than achievable next steps.

Take Tottenham today. They sit fourth in the Premier League but have already been beaten by Manchester United at home and Chelsea and Arsenal away.

This is evidence of quite a gap – Chelsea, Arsenal and United scored three times each in those Tottenham games. Should Arsenal win their game in hand then the top three would have a four-point advantage on Spurs and the rest.

With all of us, including Liverpool themselves, unsure as to what exactly Rafael Benitez is assembling at Anfield, the three remaining Premier League-Champions League clubs would appear set to ease clear and stay there.

Thankfully the situation is less straightforward than that, or so we hope. Our analysis of how progressive a side or club is switches from week to week, too much so for cold assessment, but over the next five days we may be given indications that it is time for the Premier League’s middle classes to do some hard hitting themselves.

Today the onus falls on Villa and Everton. David Moyes leads his team to Stamford Bridge and, in better condition, would surely test the nature of the little wobble that Carlo Ancelotti is experiencing for the first time in London. Everton, however, will need to improve if that is to happen.

That could be called wishful thinking and it may be the same when Villa go to Old Trafford this evening. For the sake of competition, though, we must hope that a Villa side gathering momentum over the past few weeks can push a United squad that has suffered what is known as a catalogue of injuries.

This has struck Alex Ferguson’s defence in particular but they coped in Germany on Tuesday night just as they did at Upton Park last Saturday.

But neither Wolfsburg nor West Ham should stretch United like Villa. That is our expectation and it feels like a fair one. At some stage, if the middle classes are to really lead a challenge to the establishment, then there have to be landmark results. But for Federico Macheda, Villa would have taken a point at Old Trafford in April, when United were shaking.

But that was in the season’s run-in. That means drama, of course, but in one way a Villa victory today would mean just as much. Villa would give themselves belief to build on, they would go to Sunderland on Tuesday night a squad invigorated and a push for the top four would be legitimate.

United would have the valid explanation of injuries but they would still be teased by the odd question regarding their league prowess. It is time for Villa to act.

Down in north London the same could be said of Tottenham. They should get past Wolves there today, then meet wild-card Manchester City on Wednesday.

If we are to take them seriously as top-four contenders – as opposed to fourth-place fillers due to Liverpool’s inadequacies – then this is a moment to up the tempo and hope that Villa and Everton can do their bit.

The league season is not even halfway over but a failure now by the aspirational middle class would see the top three pull away depressingly early – if Chelsea win and Villa lose then Martin O’Neill’s team, a club that matters, will be 13 points behind Chelsea after 16 games. Extrapolate that over a season and a numbing sensation kicks in. It is just not competitive enough for “the best league in the world”.

But, if we are optimistic, Villa have at last been given a first sight of €13.5 million signing Stewart Downing to boost them, while at White Hart Lane, this week saw the quiet beginning of the return of Luka Modric from injury. Modric took part in his first trial match since fracturing a fibula in August. The injuries at Chelsea and United – and Arsenal – have all received more attention than those at Tottenham, but these have been damaging.

But Modric’s availability in a few weeks will highlight that Spurs have moved into fourth place without his creativity. Redknapp is sure to be sore at his bosses’ statement on Thursday that there will be little money to spend in January, but Modric can offset that edge. Arsene Wenger once questioned the physical stature of Modric and his suitability for the Premier League, but he has been a big enough presence to be missed. Modric and Downing: the middle class needs you.

Looks like it can still get worse for Staunton

SPARE A thought this Christmas for Steve Staunton. Shortly before the Thierry Henry meltdown diversion, Staunton took his first managerial job since his Irish demise but chose the doesn’t-get-any-harder proposition of Darlington.

Staunton’s optimism on day one was half-admirable, half-questionable because logic said that this was a job for a miracle worker, not a manager with still-limited experience.

And logic is triumphing. Look at the bottom of League Two – the old Fourth Division – and Darlington are there, cut adrift by seven points from second-bottom Grimsby.

But it is the third and fourth-bottom clubs Darlington and Staunton really need to have their eyes on if they are to avoid relegation from the Football League. This afternoon, Darlington are at one of them, Torquay United, a round trip of 750 miles.

That it will be literally pointless is a probability based on form. Staunton has seen Darlington lose their last four matches, conceding 15 goals along the way and not scoring in the last three of them.

Already the talk at a club that was in administration earlier this year is of downsizing for next season. The club captain Steve Foster is in conflict with Staunton over his contract – two more starts this season and top-earner Foster gets the same money next season – so he has not been picked for the last two games.

Symbolically, for the first time in 21 years, there will be no supporters’ bus leaving Darlington for an away game. It is a cold climate and a frosty Staunton has not spoken to the local press this week. And it can get worse.