Recently by Andy Walker

To help get you in the mood for this Sunday's showdown at St Andrew's:

THERE appeared to be mass shock in the national media over the weekend following Villa and Everton's opening-day defeats.

However, to those of us who have closely monitored the summer developments at both clubs, Saturday's results would have come as no real surprise.

Pre-season preview after preview, on TV, radio and in newspapers, all tipped Villa and the Toffees to once again attempt to raid the top-four elite.

Why was that the universal opinion? It was just an easy, and lazy, assumption to make and based purely on last season's achievements alone.

As soon as Martin O'Neill changed his tune, Aston Villa's season was doomed.

The intellectual Ulsterman was quick to dismiss talk of a top-four place during the first half of this season.

Villa's exciting crop of young English talent were over-achieving and daring to challenge the Premier League's all-conquering elite.

However the chances of hearing O'Neill publicly express a belief that Villa could genuinely finish the campaign in a coveted Champions League plan were slim.

That was until the claret and blue wave went beyond the Iron Curtain at the end of the February.

From the moment O'Neill unveiled his weak starting XI to face CSKA Moscow during last month's second-leg round of 32 Uefa Cup tie, Villa were officially gunning for a top-four place.

Whereas, before, they were something of an unknown quantity who were storming forward on all fronts with tremendous moment, Villa had suddenly become the ones to watch.

Teams were now even more on their guard when the top flight's visitors from Birmingham arrived in town and as CSKA Moscow manager Zico alluded, Villa's opponents were starting to figure out a way of dealing with their one-dimensional style.

A bold move it may have been for O'Neill, but it is one that has disastrously back-fired into the face of the former Celtic manager.