I don’t for one minute think my view is the only one that counts.
Hence Hiphop thought my view on today’s game was a bit negative and wanted to offer a more positive version.
I asked him to contribute and he’s duly obliged.
Nice one, Hiphop, it’s all about opinions;
Aston villa have gained three crucial points against a mediocre West Ham, with the help of two on form exhilarating players in N’zogbia and Benteke. N’zogbia’s form of recent times has certainly engrained much needed steel into the once non-existent midfield region.
His link up play today with Benteke and particularly Delph seemed very rewarding and then he scores a blinder from 20 yards!
He seems to finally be repaying his 10 million pounds price-tag with world-class performances of late.
Benteke had a relatively quiet game, but when he was needed, he performed.
However, for me Jordan Bowery hasn’t received enough credit for his performance today. His role today was an amalgamation of defending and going forward too, which in my opinion, worked in glimpses for the youngster. His agility and strength aided our defenders against the potent threat of Caroll and Joe Cole. He is not the finished product by far, but we can see he is a prospect for sure.
The most obvious thing today was that our defence has finally got its act together. Baker and Clark particularly worked admirably hard and for the cause and by half time Baker looked as if he had been in a war and come out victorious. The tightness and correspondence with one another and the occasional flamboyant passing together paid off which is always a positive.
The two new signings (Dawkins and Sylla ) added creativity and linked up well with the attackers in (Benteke, N’zogbia, and Bent even) which shall establish a midfield region at last– one reason for this may be that Barry Bannan wasn’t playing.
The most important positives are of course, that we have gained three points and are above the unthinkable relegation line.
I feel that something has changed since the performance against west brom (even though we lost against newcastle) and I find that this one win is exactly what we needed! We can now now push up the table and take every ounce of confidence into the struggling gunners game.
Here’s some positivity for you. After reading Lambert say he’s looking for 5 more wins, I asked myself “where?” And as I see it, there are 7 “winnable” matches left.
@Reading
QPR
@Stoke
Fulham
Sunderland
@Norwich
@Wigan
I can see 4 wins out of that. That puts us on 36. Which means 4 draws out of the remaining fixtures (8) puts us on 40. Am I breathing rarified optimistic air?
Put of the teams you listed I would expect to loose two of those and draw two
So that’s 3W 2D putting us on 35 at the least. It’s ugly and probably not enough, but that’s the worst scenario, imo.
36/37 will be enough. 4 more wins and a couple of draws should do it. Playing sides like Stoke, Fulham, Sunderland is good towards the end of the season as they are mid table sides with nothing to aim for.
And pressure free so they could play like Barca…
Add one more to that Man City after Southampton they are beatable all we have to do is after the three point boost against the Hammers is now go forward.I don;t care if we win pretty or ugly as long as we win.But it;s going to take a lot more than this one game to convince me about Lambert.
Nobody has really mentioned Bent, without his clearance off the line we wouldn’t of won as we would have collapsed if we had fallen behind. Also, he won the free kick that we scored from. Why on earth lambert picked a technically poor lower league player in Bowery over him is baffling. Personal differences need to be put aside, we need the best 11 out there.
Agree dan I have mentioned bents contribution fwiw. He showed great discipline standing his ground and staying put for clearance. I would have thought that would impress lambert and show him that he can contribute elsewhere on the pitch.
You have to factor in the unexpected – but they always happen somewhere – Sending offs (especially of goalkeepers early in the game), really dodgey penalties, own goals, suspensions, international fixtures in March for World Cup, teams weary after European travel, teams over-focused on FA Cup – always a few surprises in February, March, April.
An unexpected 3 points is always out there.
The team just have to take the chance when it comes.
It is a 4 horse race over 12 games for first place.
QPR have left themselves far too much to do. If they were on equal points, it would be tough. But they are not.
Reading are plucky with a fantastic manager but only a very good Championship team.
If they were points in front, then they might edge it. But they are not.
Wigan have had far too many seasons in this league and apart from Premiership winning form in the last 9 games of last season, they were down. This looks like a season too far.
Not easy, not pretty, but a draw against Wigan, draw against Reading, draw at Norwich may be the decisive results.
Got to win half the home games and get one bonus win.
A positive is we have been pretty bad for most of the season with a predominantly young / inexperienced team yet after 26 games we are only 5 points off Fulham in 12th.
Very true. Again, I’m looking at Fulham, Sunderland and Norwich all sitting on 29 points and not in good form. Any of those three could get pulled down into it.
What I saw is a team that’s prepared to fight to stay in this league. It’ll be very close but I think Reading have had their purple patch and Villa will stay up.
Bent deserves recognition. He was challenged to be more than a scorer of goals and he’s delivered. I still think he’s a class act.
The defence is improving. They deserved a clean sheet. A couple of those will boost their confidence.
Please god, don’t let it go down to the last match of the season.