Andy Gray sympathises with Emile Heskey, but says he can still play a vital role in Aston Villa's top-five bid.
Heskey's bench role makes some tactical sense, says Gray
I feel for Emile Heskey in his present situation at Aston Villa, I really do.
It's hard for any player to get left on the bench but when you are towards the back-end of your career and you've got the chance to play in a World Cup it must be particularly tough.
Heskey joined Villa in January hoping for regular first-team football but he's only started one league game this season and that's not good enough.
You cannot keep up the level of fitness and performance required for Premier League football if you are not playing regularly. It's almost impossible.
That's part of the reason why Rio Ferdinand has struggled a bit this year; his thigh injury stopped him from getting enough minutes under his belt, leaving his season disjointed.
Bonus
Yes, it's a bonus for Martin O'Neill that Heskey has come out and said that he wants to stay and fight for his place but the signs are the striker will have to be patient. The same goes for John Carew, who is always a handful but has made just three league starts.
I can understand Martin's thinking. If he goes with three in midfield, then James Milner, Ashley Young and Gabriel Agbonlahor make an effective front three.
Agbonlahor - who created Peter Crouch's first goal for England in Wednesday's friendly against Belarus - is my Villa player of the moment because his goals have been vital to Villa's start to the season. He is the benchmark.
But until Heskey starts regularly for Villa, England manager Fabio Capello has a difficult dilemma to resolve. The Italian sees Heskey and Wayne Rooney as his preferred striking partnership but he also wants his squad members to play at the highest level, week-in, week out.
One of the reasons David Beckham moves to AC Milan every year is to prove he can play at a high level. All Heskey can do for now is fight as hard as he can for a place in the Villa side and then try his utmost to stay there.
Heskey missed out on Wednesday so Capello could have a look at other players and I was surprised Ashley Young wasn't among them.
I wouldn't say wide left is a position of strength for England. Shaun Wright-Phillips has played out of position there and Steven Gerrard has had a go too but England don't really have a natural left-sided player.
Joe Cole, although he is right footed, is capable of slotting in but Young has played pretty much all of his career at Villa on the left side, so he knows what's required and deserves more of a chance.
Dependable
Villa face a real test on Saturday when Chelsea visit. Their home form was poor last year - winning seven out of 19 games is something they've got to address this time around.
They were a side geared towards counter-attacking football and so had trouble breaking people down at home, their creativity let them down a little.
I still don't see them as a physical side, even though they've got two uncompromising defenders at the back in James Collins and Richard Dunne.
Both are good pros with massive Premier League experience and with Stephen Warnock one side and Carlos Cuellar on the other, Villa have a very solid and dependable back four that knows what's required.
Throw in a goalkeeper of Brad Friedel's quality behind them and it's no surprise to find that their defensive record - six goals conceded in seven games - is the best in the league.
Settled
Their challenge this year as a side is to prove they are good enough to challenge the top four. That task proved too much for a youngish squad that last year was still learning about life in the Premier League.
Now they are a year older, they are mentally stronger: let's see if that enables them to break into the top five. As a settled club they certainly have plenty in their favour.
Martin's been in charge for more than three years now and Randy Lerner didn't upset anything when he came in - he simply kept the club ticking over and just got on with the job.
I don't go along with the notion that the UEFA Cup was a distraction last season; their inconsistent form was the reason they fell away.
The game that really got to them last season was the Stoke game at home when they were 2-0 up going into the last four or five minutes of the game and they ended up drawing the game 2-2; those are the games they have to win.
Chelsea at home is a game Villa should look forward to. I see this one as a test of pace and mobility against the power, organisation, discipline and experience, which Chelsea have in abundance.
It will be a tough trip for Chelsea too. Villa's victory at Anfield in August won't have gone unnoticed, nor will this month's draw against Manchester City, so I'm really looking forward to it.
Are Villa's credentials are up there with the best or will Chelsea do a job on them and take the three points? We'll get a few answers on Saturday.
Favourites
I was amazed at the groundswell of negative opinion that gathered against Chelsea after their defeat to Wigan. People were saying 'here we go again, this is like Luiz Felipe Scolari last year. They are going to collapse'.
What a nonsense! None of the top teams can play great for 38 Premier League games. They can't. I've played in a Championship-winning side. There were plenty of games when we were poor but the secret was we won them or got a point to keep our season going.
Chelsea have bounced back by winning an away tie in Europe, which is never easy, and by beating Liverpool. No, they've had a great start to the season and they are still my favourites to win the league because I've seen nothing that's suggested to me that they can't.
The big difference between now and last year is that most of their players are fit and Didier Drogba is back in favour and firing. There's a lot going on at Chelsea that is very positive. What better way could there be for Heskey to make a statement than by bringing down the Blues?
