Looking increasingly composed and dangerous throughout the match, Paul Lambert’s Aston Villa dominated everything but the possession stat in keeping a clean sheet and getting their first win in 14, and the first of the Lambert era.
Aston Villa 2-0 Swansea. And well deserved.
Lambert put out a 4-4-2, the same set-up as away to Newcastle, with none of the new boys in the starting lineup.
Once again, Guzan was brilliant when he had to be, keeping Villa from going down early on as the home side started a bit nervously. Consecutive saves in the 9th minute from a Williams header on a corner and then on a curling strike from the ever-dangerous Nathan Dyer that saw Guzan at full stretch denied the Swans’ two best opportunities of the game, and paved the way for Villa to increasingly come into the match.
Matthew Lowton then opened the scoring for Villa at 15 minutes, chesting down calmly to give himself a chance at a lovely volley that fooled everyone including Vorm and put Villa on top.
Good goalkeeping can change the tide, and it did. Sometimes you need a great save, and instead of going down to another early wonder goal, it was Villa who went up on a fine strike from the edge of the box.
It seemed clear that while Villa were trying to play it from the back, they were also looking to get at the Swans’ improvised back four, continuously looking long to play Bent in and keep the back four on the back foot.
With Vlaar and Clark playing very well together and players swarming to the ball, Swansea just couldn’t break through, although they saw plenty of the ball in the middle of the park. And Vlaar was seemingly everywhere, showing a fine understanding of the game, and showing his concrete side in laying Graham low at 28 minutes when the two collided. He really was excellent.
By the 33rd minute, Villa’s pressing was starting to pay dividends and Swansea started getting sloppy.
Andreas Weimann was denied on 38 at the near post with a fine save by Vorm.
Graham failed to connect with a dangerous cross from Dyer at 43 minutes, and Villa were in at the half up 1-0.
The second half showed Villa gaining in composure and keeping the work rate high. Guzan at 48 minutes was sharp to get to a poor back pass. At 52 minutes Clark was close on a corner, forcing a good save.
Villa put on the pressure for a spell and were unlucky not to go up 2-0 when Weimann’s fine effort on the turn was cleared off the line.
Pablo Hernandez, the £5.5m man from Valencia, came on at 57 minutes for Wayne Routledge, and instantly injected pace, vision and energy for Swansea.
Then at 70 minutes, new boys Ashley Westwood and Christian Benteke made their Villa debuts with Stephen Ireland and Andreas Weimann making way.
Almost instantly Benteke showed his class, getting involved immediately, pulling off a lovely backheel, holding up, and looking to play Bent in. His control looked good, and he carried a menace and sense of purpose about him that few Villa strikers have in a long time. Perhaps it was just the excitement of his debut, but it instantly gave Villa something different that Swansea were having trouble coping with.
And instead of seeing out the game out on the back foot, Lambert brought Charles N’Zogbia on for the tireless Holman at 78 minutes, and Villa kept the pressure on throughout, looking for the second goal that would likely seal the win.
Karim El Ahmadi forced another good save from Vorm on 82 minutes, then Bannan and Bent combined very well to create an opportunity for Benteke who whiffed at the chance.
But after a couple of attempts by former Villan Luke Moore to even accounts, five minutes later Williams, under pressure, tried to flick a header back to Vorm, and Benteke showed fine predatory instincts, read it, pounced, and cooly chipped the keeper to see Villa deservedly ahead 2-0 and put the three points on the board. Fantastic debut.
Swansea almost pulled one right back, but they didn’t when they should’ve.
Once past their nervy start, Villa showed energy, composure, dedication, intelligence and some fine passages of play. The defense is starting to look good. Lichaj perhaps had the weakest performance of the four, but his combative nature and offensive contributions were significant.
Villa led the shooting 17-9, with 13 attempts on target versus 4 for Swansea. Villa had 10 corners to Swansea’s 4, but did finish with 45% possession, which isn’t entirely poor given how Swansea play. A dead-even 44% of the match was contested in the middle third.
I’ll let others go into more detail on players and performances, but it really was a fine performance to follow up the point at Newcastle, and Lambert’s Limes may have more potential than we might have thought. Easy to get carried away, but that was a good performance ending several poor streaks, and it will have done the team a world of good.
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