Thank God we got that win at St. Mary’s. If this were a normal week without a midweek fixture, I would be scratching my head trying to conjure a unique take on another blase home performance that ended in a 0-0 draw.
Almost 40% into the season, and the club are comfortably mid-table. Aston Villa are actually closer to European qualification than they are to the drop. That’s not to get ahead of ourselves, and to fantasise about avenging our recent pathetic European campaigns, but it is a fair measure of where we are at. In reality, it’s right about where most measured fans thought we would be.
If at any point last season, or the season before, you told me the club would escape relegation, find a nurture a young nucleus, and that the club would be back to respectability at this point, I would’ve taken it in a second. Still, there is a small undercurrent of discontent among the supporters. While the results have been good, especially given the start the team had, the performances have been workmanlike and lacking in style points.
The most exciting performance was the opening week against Arsenal. I was laughing my head off as we beat Manchester City, Villa’s three other wins and many over the other points the club have picked up have been ground out to say the least. By all accounts, the Southampton game was much the same. I think the feeling is that the performances need to pick up a bit for the results to keep coming.
The optimistic view is that the club has been picking up results without firing on all cylinders. There is no reason to think the players we currently have can’t do better either. Christian Benteke is clearly better than he has been lately, even though he isn’t on top form yet.
Whatever the reason for his dip in form, hopefully sitting for most of Wednesday will have a positive effect, be it time to clear his head or a kick in the rear. Maybe Gabby Agbonlahor’s goal will allow him to kick on and go on one of his hot streaks he is capable of. It was those two and Andreas Weimann who spurred the team on at the end of last season. For us to replicate the form of last season, then it’s likely going to be up to those three.
In the interim, Karim El-Ahmadi, Ashley Westwood, and now Fabian Delph have contributed goals. I’m still waiting for a Villa centre back to score on a set piece, but in terms of preventing goals, it’s hard to take issue by and large. At the time of writing this piece, there’s still no news on Ron Vlaar’s injury. If he is out for a while, we could likely throw that last sentence out the window. Going through the holiday period with only two fit centre backs scares the hell out of me.
If all our strikers get going we might really have something. That we are where we are despite issues, however, it is still encouraging.
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