Comment by Lou Macari

THANK heavens I overslept the other day and didn’t get down to the bookies in time to lump all my money on Villa to beat Stoke and Spurs to beat Manchester United.
There was me thinking Villa’s rested players would sweep away Stoke, and Tottenham’s refreshed frontliners would give United a real game at Wembley.
Sadly for footballers everywhere, both results just go to prove you can’t sit on your backside all week and expect to win your next game.
The fact is, you train and prepare yourself to play matches – wherever and whenever they come along – not to sit at home while your team-mates jet off to Moscow.
True, Spurs did take United all the way to a penalty shootout in the Carling Cup Final, but anyone watching the game will tell you it was a poor spectacle and not a measure of Tottenham’s rested players stretching United to the limit.
The game was so poor, in fact, I was watching almost as much of the Stoke match on a laptop belonging to a fella next to me from Al Jazeera television.
It was a tremendous fightback in the last few minutes and left you wondering how Villa could be pinned back like that after half the team had their feet up during the week.
Footballers are paid to play, so let them play, not switch off mentally and physically for a few days.
When will the lesson get through? It will take a while yet, but at least Stoke played their part with Sunday’s result.
That point will be seen as a bonus, but you just can’t predict too many results in the Premier League these days.
Middlesbrough’s victory over Liverpool on Saturday was further proof that few teams are so superior as to be a shoo-in. Their victory, together with Stoke’s comeback, also shows there’s still life in those being written off by many at the bottom of the table.
Stoke must now take that late momentum from Villa Park into their clash with a rejuvenated Bolton at the Britannia tomorrow night.
Bolton’s recent surge up the table may not be all bad news for Stoke. Not so long ago they would have come to the Potteries and seen this game as a life and death fixture.
But now they have those points in the bag and are in the top half of the table, it might just take the edge off their game.
A relaxed team can play better, of course, but I think Bolton are one of those teams that have to be up for a war to produce their very best.
Let’s hope so for Stoke’s sake as a victory will really catapult them back into the pack.
It might also take them above Hull for the first time all season and what a psychological blow that will be.
They’re in freefall at the moment and the last thing they want in their current predicament is their so-called star player chucking his toys out of the pram.
The sight of Geovanni throwing his arms in the air and getting the crowd going after his substitution on Sunday is a recipe for serious trouble.
Hull are really in the thick of it and, if that’s a sign of the spirit in their camp, then Stoke and the rest down there will be rubbing their hands with glee.
Perhaps Geovanni is one player who really could do with a rest.

Well done to Gudjon
I DON’T think Gudjon Thordarson needs any advice judging by the wonderful job he’s doing at Crewe.
But I‘d just say one thing – don’t accept the manager-of-the-month award. We all know it’s a curse and I’m sure Gudjon must be in the running to win it for February after a sequence of four straight wins and five victories in their last six fixtures.
That’s seen the Alex fire themselves out of the relegation zone in stunning fashion after being left for dead not so long ago.
It’s one hell of a turnaround in their fortunes and Gudjon must take his fair share of the credit. He’s obviously gone in there and done what all good managers do when taking over a struggling team... shore up the defence first and then take things from there.
Clean sheets breed the kind of confidence Crewe are clearly playing with if that terrific 4-0 win at Brighton is anything to go by.
The job is only half done, of course, but I can’t imagine Gudjon letting any complacency creep into the camp after such a tremendous effort to get out of that bottom four.

United may slip up
IT’S two down and three to go for Manchester United as they chase this record of five trophies in one season.
I can’t see it happening, to be honest, because somewhere along the way something will go against them at a crucial moment.
Not in the league, that’s sewn up in my opinion because they’d have to have a catastrophic run to come a cropper – and I’m not sure there’s anyone good enough to take advantage behind them anyway. But cup ties are a different matter. We saw how Spurs stuck it out long enough to go to the lottery of a penalty shoot-out.
And as Fergie said himself, it only takes a deflection off someone’s backside at Fulham on Saturday for United to go crashing out of the FA Cup next weekend.
And then there is the little matter of Jose Mourinho and Inter Milan at Old Trafford in the Champions’ League.