Five things Aston Villa fans are wishing for from the International Break

Christian Benteke

1. We hope when Christian Benteke was packing his suitcase (see above) for his international duty with Belgium, he discovered that’s where he’d left his scoring boots, that have been missing the past few weeks. Benteke hasn’t scored for Villa since returning from his last international break with the Red Devils, so it would explain everything.

2. Fabian Delph is having a week-long ice bath to get him ready for the West Brom game. We’ll certainly need his bite in the Villa midfield for the Midland’s derby.

3. Wherever he is, we hope that Aleksandar Tonev is putting in at least eight hours-a-day shooting practise and eight hours-a-day ‘passing when scoring from 40-yards is impossible’ practise.

4. Hopefully Brad Guzan just faked his injury to avoid being called up for the USA, because he just couldn’t be ar*ed to fly to their games. After all, they have qualified for the World Cup, so it’s no biggie.

5. After WBA’s recent letter to the Premier League asking for video reviews of penalty decisions to the Premier League, wouldn’t it be great if the Premier League said, ‘Yep, good idea’ and rushed through a new rule during the international break. Then in the final minute of the forthcoming Midland’s derby, with Villa 1-0 up in injury time, Shane Long takes a tumble in the Villa penalty box. The referee blows for a penalty. But after the new compulsory video review of the incident, it’s deemed a blatant dive by Long. The Baggies striker gets a red card for his troubles and Villa fans get to laugh all the way home.