Christmas is almost here again and everyone's getting excited.

But let's not get too carried away. I know football fans love this time of year because they see a sackful of presents, like nine points and a sudden surge up the table to make it a Happy New Year.

Well, I'm sorry to be Scrooge, but it's not the way a footballer will be thinking. For Blackburn, it's dangerous to even look beyond this Saturday.

I know it's a cliche, but it's true -- when you are a professional player you can't look beyond the next game. You have to stay focused on it, no matter how quickly the next one comes round.

It's all very well saying that after Aston Villa this weekend, Rovers have another home game when they play Middlesbrough on Boxing Day and it's a great chance for six points.

And it is, simply because home games against dull, uninspired teams like those should be ones you're looking to win.

But it's a real problem looking at the Christmas fixtures that way. People sometimes say, 'well we've got three or four games coming up, if we get nine or 10 points we can do this, or be in that position' but that's a real problem.

You can easily start to get carried away so there's no point even looking beyond the next game.

And what if Rovers don't take the three points against Aston Villa, because there's certainly no guarantees or easy games in this Premiership.

That automatically spoils the target you've set yourself and affects concentration for the next game, when really you should just be looking at each one individually and focusing on getting three points from them.

I mean, it was difficult enough in my day when we'd play a game one day then the next day we'd be out playing again, but you just have to block out stupid things like that so they don't affect you.

On Saturday, it will just be a case of getting out there, beating Aston Villa, then you can start thinking about beating Middlesbrough in the next one.

And Villa is a very winnable game, but at the very least you don't lose because that's a big thing to have in your armour, being a side that's hard to beat.

Rovers are just starting to gel now, with Barry Ferguson and Brett Emerton settling in well to Premiership football so I hope that can continue until the end of the season.

Ferguson in particular has looked impressive, and he's held his own against Roy Keane and Patrick Vieira in recent weeks - and they don't come much better than those two players.

He looks like the player in midfield who can weigh in with goals - something we've missed since Damien Duff and David Dunn have left.

His runs into the box have been superb, and you can see why he got so many goals for Rangers last season.

Rovers have picked themselves up, despite the loss at Highbury, but they have to focus because a bad run can send you crashing back down again.

I TOTALLY agree with Zinedine Zidane getting the World Player of the Year award - after all, he IS the best player in the world.

Many people thought Thierry Henry was going to win it, but Zidane is the top player on the planet and has been for the last six years.

It was very nice of Henry to say how honoured he was to be next to his fellow Frenchman when he finished second to him in the voting, so that shows how much esteem he is held in.

Zidane is so good because he dominates games and is able to do exactly what he wants, as he showed in the Champions League quarter-final against Manchester United.

He can make time to do exactly what he wants with the ball and it's all down to one thing -- awesome natural ability.