To address this failing Alan Ball might give a full debut to Martin Phillips, the 19-year- old winger who he has said could become England’s first pounds 10m player.”A lot of our supporters have been wondering when I’m going to give Martin his first full game in the senior side,” he said, “and he’ll definitely be involved in some capacity.”If City were shocked to get five goals in the Cup against Leicester on Wednesday it was nothing to the raised eyebrows at Blackburn and Arsenal who surrendered to First Division opposition in midweek.Arsenal get back to League business when they meet Everton at Highbury with their manager, Bruce Rioch, facing team selection problems. Newcastle could lose it but they would need a really sticky patch for the rest of the pack to catch them up.”
No patch could be more adhesive for the Premiership leaders than a home defeat by the bottom side, Bolton, who have accrued just one point from 33 on their League travels. Against a Newcastle side who are chasing a 12th successive Premiership win at St James’ Park, the Wanderers would appear to have about as much chance of succeeding as the Duchess of York becoming Chancellor of the Exchequer.Particularly as Bolton will be without Chris Fairclough and Gerry Taggart, who are suspended, which more than makes up for the likely absence from Newcastle’s team of Les Ferdinand with a hip injury.Newcastle will go 12 points clear tonight if they win because Manchester United do not play at West Ham until Monday although their assistant, Terry McDermott, was not counting points or chickens. “Anyone expecting an avalanche from us could be surprised,” he said.

“Bolton have been unlucky recently with late goals denying them points. They are not as bad as people think they are.”Neither are Manchester City, although there will be plenty who fear yesterday’s purchase of Nigel Clough will be too late if they lose to the team immediately above them in the table, Coventry City, at Maine Road today.Only Bolton have conceded more goals on their travels than Coventry but against that no team has scored fewer times than City. “They were already the hottest favourites for years and the odds will shorten now they are out of both cup competitions. Scott Sellars has many qualities but timing is not among them. He might have two championship medals on display at home but he left Leeds United and Blackburn before the clubs won their titles and it seems likely that his move from Newcastle United to Bolton Wanderers will complete a hat-trick.

In fact the midfield player is certain that his pounds 750,000 transfer to Burnden Park last month will deny him a prize “I can’t see anyone stopping Newcastle,” he said. “You can get into a trap of becoming obsessed with clean sheets. Then, if you concede one, it can get you so upset it makes the rest of your game fall apart. You can play brilliantly and still let in a couple, so for me it’s more important to be on the winning side.”Better, of course, to fly in the face of conventional wisdom than of an onrushing attacker Either way, Mark Bosnich is clearly no ordinary goalkeeper.. There’s nothing more satisfying.”That evidently includes shutting out the opposition. Cups are great but I’d rather be in the top four after 38 matches. After Spurs, the coming weeks pit them against Liverpool and Leeds, not to mention an awkward FA Cup tie at Sheffield United and the double-header with Arsenal for a Wembley place.”After that lot, we’ll have a better idea of whether we can win something,” Bosnich said “The League is the one.

At the moment he sees no one better than David Seaman and Peter Schmeichel, although Bernard Lama, of Paris St-Germain, and Angelo Peruzzi, of Juventus, also impress him.In the meantime Villa have a world to play for themselves. Intriguingly, his chief rival to become the best in Britain may be his friend and opposite number tomorrow, Ian Walker, already a regular in Venables’ squads.The World Cup in 1998 would be the ideal platform for Bosnich to measure himself against the planet’s safest hands. Proud as Bosnich is of his ethnic roots, he stresses that the pair have no problems playing together.”When Savo first came I outlined my position to him and he explained his. Obviously we’ve got fundamental differences but we get on well. Politics shouldn’t come into it, even though it’s hard because it’s on the news every day. Our priority is to do well for Aston Villa.”Bosnich is doing exactly that, his second five-year plan apparently on schedule.

It’s not as if we said: ‘Let’s see if we can get a 0-0 draw’.”Villa’s defensive excellence begs the question of how high they might be if they possessed a Sheringham or a Shearer. The jury is still out on Savo Milosevic, their pounds 3.5m striker, who happens to be from Serbia. The Rocks are leaving me the bare minimum to do, making sure it has to be something special to beat me.”How long before the cry of “Boring, boring Villa” is heard? “After we got a point at United last week we were labelled dull and uncompromising. I don’t object to the second part of that, but we were pinned in our half, like they do to you at Old Trafford. “I saw Manchester United try it at Sunderland the other night, and they struggled. He and his coaches spent the summer working on a three-man defence (Bosnich has dubbed Ugo Ehiogu, Paul McGrath and Gareth Southgate “the Rocks”). So effective has the formation proved that Southgate now plays for England, while Ehiogu and the wing-back Alan Wright will join him at Terry Venables’ get-together next week.Bosnich, who would surely have been with them if his loyalties did not lie elsewhere, argues that Villa are one of the few teams who understand how to play the system.