Images of a fantastic night
Well what a game, you would have watched it, either on TV or at Villa Park and it is impossible to describe what a mad game and lots of credit to Blackburn for a fantastic effort but it is clear over two legs we throughly deserved to get to Wembley and a great chance of silverware against the red or blue half of Manchester.
So for anyone not there I hope these pictures from my phone capture some of the atmosphere before, during and after the game.
World class quality, names please
Today’s game did not really tell the Villa fans and management anything we did not already know. We ar a fantastically hard working team, we never give up and have a fair amount of quality. However in tight games as we saw against Arsenal & Liverpool we lack the ultimate top quality to seemingly take us storming into the top 4 places.
Sometimes when you go to Villa Park you know things may not pan out as you think they should. News that Reo-coker was not even on the bench suggested that he may have another club lined up but MON denied this and apparently he injured an ankle in training. The game though from our point of view started very slowly and it was not until we got to the second half we started to play like the team we know we are but unfortunately for Gabby he lacked the quality to put three quality chances away. The last chance was typical of his game today, I think when he does not have time to think he is very good as he has shown against the ‘sky 4′ and local derbies. However after Carew’s flick on he had time to think, last minutes and frankly he messed up the chance.
That sums up what I mean by the title of this post we have seen how quality hurts us and makes the difference between three points and one. However it does seem that maybe money like at the vast majority of clubs is rather limited so to get this attacking quality and fit our team spirit and play I am open to names on who it could be.
One foot in a Wembley final, seal it at Villa Park
Great performance, should have been more but anyone would take 1-0 away win for the 1st leg and you could tell this game meant something to Villa, just magnificent support.
Villa came out for the game looking like they meant business and after 15 minutes of possession we created a fair few chances without actually managing to breach the net. Then total dominance from Villa with chance upon chance until Milner from his own breakaway scored a great goal to put us up one – nil, great credit to Downing with brilliant link up play.
For the rest of the half Villa totally dominated, created chances but Clattenburg refuses two absolute stonewall penalties to make the score very unfair to Villa.
The second half started off much like the first half, two great chances carved out but Blackburn missed a clear chance to post up warning signs, despite the domination, the tie is not over. Blackburn continued to start to pile on the pressure with long balls, the Villa defence continued to stay firm under this pressure as Kallinc hits the post twice and forces a great save from Guzan,
Villa after 70 mins made a change with Sidwell on for Heskey, going 4-5-1 as the Blackburn storm was weathered somewhat and Young missed a great opportunity. Has the 2nd half came to a close, Blackburn’s attacks became less frequent and we created further chances.
As the full time whistle blew, we got a very good 1st half performance and score and at Villa Park i front of a full house should seal the tie and get to Wembley.
Stats
Posession 55% to Villa
Shots on Target 9 to Villa, 2 to Blackburn
Corners 13 to 9 in Villa’s favour
Progress to our destiny with squad strength
Lets get the negatives out of the way first. Guzan in my view will be a top class keeper but he has to cut out the silly mistakes like today and the other one was that we have to more clinical in front of goal.
However today was about the positives in what was a very comfortable game against a 10 man Blackburn who never gave up. Guzan yet again proved what a fantastic penalty saver he is, he seems to be able to react after the ball has been kicked and few penalty takers can be confident they can score. The performance of the two young kids Delph and Delfouneso impressed especially in the first half and both showed that they can be big stars for Villa in the future. The game also showed unlike the previous years Carling cup games that now we can rest players and not have a depreciation in results. What MON has done in the summer has ensured we can compete on all fronts has we have quality of player to replace what we would call the first team starters.
However the two outstanding performances were from two ‘old stagers’. I am not Reo-Coker’s biggest fan at all but he was immense today and though his passing at times can be better he seems to be learning that and maybe realises he has to because he can be a success at Villa.
For the future of this season it has to be said that Ash Young’s performance was the most encouraging. He obviously had a week off and some criticism of his diving and today he answered these critics in style. The performance was the Young of old, a performance where every cross was dangerous and created trouble, that is what we would like to see, if we ignore the glaring miss !
One final word and to those around me in L4, Lower Holte, when you are playing against 10 men to keep the ball like we did in the last 15 minutes is good, it is the correct way to do it. To start moaning about possession football is madness and not understanding how football works.
So now we go into tomorrow’s nights cup draw, knowing we can end 53 years of hurt, bring it on !
Villa roasted by Fabregas
That was clear today, that a world class player comes in, not fully fit and totally changed the game with a fantastic 27 minute cameo. Up until Fabregas’s introduction I felt we were comfortable in the game with looking dangerous on the break but one moment on world class brilliance changed the whole tempo of the match in Arsenal’s favour.
For 60 minutes the defence looked comfortable, midfield controlled and managing to snuff out the majority of the danger from Arsenal and Gabby and Heskey combined well to cause problems. However it is clear to really make the next step up we need to find what I call a game changer attacker and we lack that. Carew will never be that against decent teams and Young when he has an off day like today leaves us with little creativity.
Problem is those players are few and far between and cost the Earth and unlikely to sign for a team outside of the current ‘Sky 4’. With the games coming fast then young being suspended with a few others on the edge will stretch the squad and I would like to think in the winter transfer window this can be resolved.
So we have to start a good run again and Liverpool on Tuesday (snow permitting !!) provides a very good chance to get back on track again. At the halfway point in the season we are 4th, we have played well at times and a defeat should not mean all is wrong but rather point us to where we need to get to
Clean sheets the way to success
All good teams rely on their defence to succeed, it is no good needing to score 4 every game to win !!
So with 4 successive clean sheets we are well on the way to success as we can create chances. What we saw today was a team very confident to hold onto the lead and not to repeat the mistake of 10 months ago. Despite a good performance from Stoke and a fair amount of pressure Friedel did not have to make a single save in the whole game.
The whole defence goes for every ball, puts their body on the line for the team and all of them are playing at the maximum of their ability. The praise tonight goes all to Carlos Cuellar who was magnificent in defence and his tackling was fantastic, the £7m MON paid looks like a steal.
Today’s game was nothing special a bit of a attritional battle which is the type of game all the top 4 teams win and we look like we can go the distance to success. I have to say when Heskey went off we resorted to old tactics to Carew once again but he scored and that is that counts !
So now we go into the difficult Xmas fixtures with confidence and against teams who are not playing that well and 4 points will set us for a strong 2nd half of the season which we can look forward to with great optimism.
Full time – Sunderland 0 Villa 2 – move to third
Villa unsurprising started the same side that beat Man Utd but a tight first 10 minutes saw Sunderland have the best of the game. But Villa started to play it on the deck and causing Sunderland problems and drawing early yellow cards and from one of the free kicks Downing hit the bar.
After the first 20 minutes the game settled down into quite an entertaining contest as Milner from a great Petrov interception slid in Heskey to slot home. The rest of the half settled into a familiar Villa pattern of good defence and threatening counter attacks and a well deserved lead.
Villa started the 2nd half scappy and Andy Reid in the first 4minutes should have scored. That seemed to wake up Villa as Heskey after good play shot over. This was then followed after 55 minutes by a fantastic move which led to ash hitting the post.
Then what a great goal by Milner, a couple of jinks and a stunning shot into the top corner after 60 mins. On 68 Milner then picked up a yellow for a silly challenge. Villa then controlled the game by defending brilliantly and Cana for Sunderland picked up a red for a late challenge on Milner.
For the rest of the half Villa saw the game off for a well deserved win in which the defence starred but James Milner clear MOTM with a stunning goal and great assist.
We move to third with a top 4 performance with quality performances all round
24 hours later and events at Old Trafford still a dream
24 hours later, watched the game twice all the way through and I am still in a state of disbelief at actually breaking a 26 year old hoodoo at Old Trafford and for our only 3rd win in Premier league history.
I had the pleasure of watching the game live in a pub with a mate and it seemed from all the fans gathered round there was a strange sense of confidence that this would be our time at last 8 months after being cheated at Old Trafford. As the game wore on and apart from a few scares it became clear that the defence were playing brilliantly, Friedel had little do apart from one awesome save and when Collins came on this feeling was only strengthened.
Why did we win there and it was actually comfortable for an away team. In fact why has our form picked up, there is a few factors of course but the introduction of Downing if not only for the last two games has given us a new dimension we did have before. Of course the obvious point is that it allowed us to move Milner
inside and means that Young in theory can not be double marked.
Along with the fact Downing keeps and retains the ball very well it has allowed Petrov to play the more natural role of distributor knowing that he is in a midfielder full of very good ball playing forwards. This in turn has led to us ‘lumping’ the ball far less and playing to Gabby’s and Heskey’s strengths of being fed balls to feet and taking the pressure off from then.
This game was the start of a very tough run and by the end of the Liverpool game at the end of December if we are still in 4th place then it is on. The key is whether we do not have the usual slump in the early part of the year, the season is shaping up very well.
Villa vs Wigan Reaction
Well that was RUBBISH
No good disguising the truth, no point making excuses, there is none, that was dire.
No point trying to identify a MOTM or even the worst player because so many were just poor, which I have not seen for a long time including games in that bad run last season.
Some may take as a comfort the Everton thrashing tonight but that means nothing to me and nor should it to any Villa fan. We have problems, plenty of them and we need to address them and quick. Funnily to me the answers are simple and the answers (apart from more defenders) are within the club and revolves all around the system.
Basically we have to go back to what worked last season and go to a 4-3-2-1 system wth the midfield and forwards as below
Petrov – NRC – Sidwell
Milner – Young
Carew or Heskey or Gabby
it works, the major teams play this and we have the numbers and quality to play it
4-4-2 in today’s football is too easy to counter as Wigan did today wth a 3 man central midfield, we get starved of possession and can not get the ball to the wings and we suffer. We miss the next round of league games thanks to the Europa, maybe that is a good thing but at Anfield next Monday it does not get easier !!
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