West Ham Win: Can We Beat the Drop?
Finally! After several weeks in waiting, I am now able to construct an article for Aston Villa Life post-Villa win; and, in the words of James Brown: I feel good, especially as every single result last weekend went in our favour (bar Southampton’s surprise win at home to Manchester City). A single point would have done little for us, so the main point was seeing Villa do their bit after Saturday’s results.
With no FA Cup game this weekend, the players and management team have a little while to reevaluate the position we find ourselves in and prepare for the match at the Emirates a week on Saturday.
As good as it feels to win and be above that trap-door for the time being, I certainly will not be getting carried with the performance against West Ham. The first half was pretty much a non-entity; the only talking point was Andreas Weimann’s glaring miss after a couple of minutes. I felt that both sides were equally as sloppy in possession.
The Hammers came out with a spring in their step for the second period, knocking the ball around with a touch of vigour before finally getting into the game. To be brutally honest, neither side can say that they deserved the win, but we certainly needed those three points a lot more than they did. This victory is just one step on the long road to safety, but you can bet your bottom dollar that there’s bound to be plenty more twists in the tale between now and the season’s end.
Villa will to have to raise their game ten-fold to get anything out of the next two matches against Arsenal and Manchester City; should we pick up anything out of these games, then that will be firmly inked in as a bonus. Fortunately, looking at the next couple of fixtures of the teams around us, I don’t believe things will alter all that much prior to going into the crunch fixtures at Reading (9th March) and at home to Queens Park Rangers (16th March). Come the week commencing the 18th March, we’ll certainly know a lot more in terms of wins required etc.
Whilst we’re pitting ourselves against the big boys, I shall be keeping more than just an eye on a trio of other fixtures over the course of the next few weeks, and those are:
Reading v Wigan (23/02), Newcastle v Southampton (24/02) & Southampton v QPR (02/03)
Reading against Wigan is a stand out next weekend; whereas, should Southampton fail to pick up any points in their two upcoming matches, then they, too, could see themselves being sucked into the mire.
On my final note with regards to the West Ham match, I was very pleased to see that Lambert finally saw sense and dropped Joe Bennett, who has been a consistent thorn in our side – yet, seemingly until now, had made himself an ever-present. His replacement, Nathan Baker, produced a hearty display; and, presuming he starts against the Gunners, is going to have to have an absolute stormer to keep the in-form Theo Walcott quiet.
Brad Guzan was excellent in goal, but my stand-out player was Fabian Delph. He showed a steely energy and was back and forth and up-and-down, which was great to see. Admittedly, on occasions he ran into a cul-de-sac, but he looked hungry.
Hopefully we can now kick on a little bit. We go into the next two games, where both the media and fans expect us to come away with nothing, and therefore play with little or no pressure heaped on our shoulders. If the players dig deep, then who knows?
Last week I took a little bit of stick in the comments section for stating that Villa would be good value for an immediate return to the Premier League – should the worst happen. The Championship is by no means a gimme, but I feel that my words may have been taken out of context.
What I meant was that I can’t foresee a mass exodus of players if we were to go down. Naturally, there will be half-a-dozen or so players who would seek to quit the club to play top level football again; but, because our squad wage bill is now very much in line with what the club brings in [even despite relegation in this example], then I would like to think that these players, along with a few sensible additions, could – and probably should – see us back to where we belong.
I’d recommend that you spend this weekend relaxing a little. Put your feet up and give the old ticker a much-needed rest. Supporting the Villa in this day and age should definitely come with a health warning.
Until next week, Up The Villa!
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Hello Ryan,
Even reading your leader one can sense the renewed optimism among the fans. Unless we get smashed in our up coming games and keep on track then i would say it is possible to stay up. This is why people are so angry with Lerner, for just a few million more units he could have made our survival certain, we have the goalscorers, not too clever in MD and the back, two steady Eddies and we could have a half decent team but no, smart arse has got to risk it all needlessly, Hope to God that he and Chubby are out of the club soon.
Hope is back Ryan! So nice to get a win, like clouds have started to clear.
Steamer, Lerner is a total c**k face. After years of defending him, I’ve now lost all respect for him. I’d love someone to organise a co-op with the fans owning the club. If I had more time I’d properly investigate it. Got to be a better path, turn it back into a club by for the fans for the fans. Profits re-invested or with lower ticket prices.
Ryan,
A good soothing article to calm down our battle hardened troops, really looking forward to the weekend without a game it will be a luxury, i think in our fawning over Baker and slating of Bowery some of us did not give Guzan enough credit, i thought he showed exactly what we needed he helped out the back four by coming for balls and commanding his box, problem being you open yourself up to mistakes by being too brave.
Steamer, agree 100% re: Lerner he could have put a couple of players in place to ensure our survival and the anticipated windfall next season but he could not see it the idiot, there are times when you need to speculate and that was it, the sooner he sells up the better we need someone who understands English football and the pitfalls it brings.
UTV
Delph was great but Guzan would have been my MOM. Lowton was also good, defended well and got down the wing to support play.
Another one who went below the radar was Westwood, nothing spectacular, but good in possession and seemed win the ball more than any other player.
Everyone slated the first half but I was impressed. Not one for the neutral but i waa happy. We battled and stopped them playing, we didn’t give away a single corner or dangerous set piece. Given recent problems that was a massive improvement.
I just hope that gives us some momentum we can take into and beyond the arsenal game.
Looking forward to the break from the heart attacks. We now have 2 weeks as winners whens the last time that happened? Forget the fact its only 1 game!
Going back to the January window, you have to think where would we be if we had bought Sissoko instead of Newcastle? We were heavily linked with him before Newcastle got him so on the face of it it looks like we were in for him. We bought Sylla instead for a similar transfer fee but presumably less wages. Sissoko went straight into the game against us set up a goal and the win then went on to inspire them to a win against Chelsea at home. Had we bought him we might have got that result against Newcastle and they probably would have gotten beat by Chelsea at home. So we would be sitting pretty right now and they would be in the bottom 3. Not saying we would have bought him ahead of Newcastle if we were both in for him given their french connection but it shows the immediate impact a player who is ready can have.
I guess Sylla is still adjusting to the English style/pace. Hopefull he can use this time to get up to speed and he can come in against a relatively lightweight Arsenal team ready to throw his weight around.
The value of 3 points cannot be underestimated, even though it was a dire game in which we tried our best to throw it away, the win was massive.
I still think it could be down to our final game at Wigan, it’s extremely tight at the bottom and the 4 battling for survival are starting to be cut adrift, so it’s gonna be a nervy few weeks, in which we simply have to win another 4/5 matches whilst keeping an eye on those around us.
A point from the Arsenal/City games would be a bonus, although I can’t see us getting anything at the Emirates and Man city won’t be as bad as they were against the saints, especially joe Hart.
Whatever happens we need a massive inquest into this seasons debacle, and how we fix it and move forward.
I’m not sure Lambert is the man for the job and we all know Lerner and Chubby should be shot for crimes against football.
Going back to what Gav said I would love to see a fan co-op owning or part owning the club too, would be great if we saw something like what happens in the Bundesliga, where fans more or less own 51% of their clubs. Also the Bundesliga has the highest attendances and the some of the cheapest ticket prices in Europe. I know Id definitely splash out to own part of the club I love and so would a huge amount of fans even in these times of austerity.
Many people have been underwhelmed by the performance on Sunday… I don’t get it…
The football wasn’t free flowing and attractive. We didn’t tear WHU a new arse hole… I can see that… however I feel the performance was pretty damn good on an organisation and tactically front.
Watch the game again and compare it with defending from games a month ago. We have changed two major things.
At set plays we where marking their two main threats and then the rest of the team was protecting zones… this meant our players constantly banging in to each, constant confusion and lots of room for opposition players in our box… This has changed, we went man for man with two men on the posts… We look far more competitive in those situations now… Secondly we’ve gone to a 4 at the back and clearly Lambert has indicated that his fullback are not to go on constant raids… Lowton and Baker where far more reserved in their attacks… which has helped cut down space for counters and (rather perversely) created more room for players like Benteke and Zoggy to expose…. as our semi final defeat showed you can have too many player attacking the same areas… you just crowd the area and make it more difficult to create and find space.
I don’t like Big Sam but one thing you must admire is his ability to attack the weaknesses of teams… Our defence won’t get many tougher challenges this season physically or arially. We have not really been under done by slick passing and interplay this season… set plays and high balls have been our real enemy this is why we have done better against the Swansea’s and performed “above our selves” against some of the top teams…
Credit must go to the team and manager for working on that and I must say at this point I am happy to sacrifice the all out attack for defensive stability.
Was the performance exciting? No was the performance professional and effective? Yes.
I am thankful Arsenal are up first… I do think we have the players in Zoggy and Benteke to bully and surprise people in getting something from the game….
I’m not predicting breath taking performances and and game to remember but another character building point or 3 would be most welcome and certainly not out of the question.
Just been talking to a work mate about the state of english football, ie worst league season i can remember. I now have hope again we can stay up. Reading have been flying lately and getting good results, we have been rubbish but still above them. 4 or 5 years ago i think we would of been nearly down all ready but as the league is so bad we are 6 points off 11th!
We did have some things to be happy about Graham like out defensive performance, Clark rediscovering some form, Baker getting hurt for the cause, Delph playing much better, Nzog showing that spark, but I get the feeling that Sunday was more about opposition tactics rather than our own. Sam tried to second guess us with a 3 at the back and seemed quite happy to sit back and soak up pressure, they did not venture very far forward the first half. Second half they came out a bit more and actually caused us all sorts of problems for a 10/15 min spell start of the half. Then Lambert made the subs and Bent made one huge block on the line from Carroll, just after that Nzog got the penalty and we scored then got the free kick and scored.
The game could have easily gone either way but thankfully it went our way for once, usually its us who almost score then the opposition go straight up the pitch and score like what happened against Spurs. Its fine margins and lately we’ve been on the wrong side. So it wasnt a bad performance, it wasnt a lucky one either. That game was just ours to win, it was written, things fell in place and all that. Fate. We need a lot more of that.
The point about playing better against some the bigger teams is all about expectations, we do not have the weight of that on our shoulders so we can go out and perform. Arsenal away and Man City at home are not the worst games to be playing right now. We could well get something out of them but there is no expectation.
Iv got to agree Andrew the standard of football throughout the whole league is not that good. Its almost as if the PL has regressed the past few seasons. Yeh last yr was the most unbelievable finish ever but as a whole the standard has dropped. Man U are 12 points clear and nobody can say that they have been absolutely dominant this year. They just keep grinding out results time after time. In fact no team has been dominant for any length of time its been up and down. The pressure is so intense in these premiership games, there so much riding on every single result I think it just leads to cr*p football for the most part. Too long ball and not enough control, not enough magic happening.
when you look back ree khalid and think of zola, bergkamp, henry, cantona, cole, shearer etc the prem used to be quality. Ironic thing is the money is getting more and more wages, fees etc but the standard is worse!! weird! I have not been impressed with utd at all and they are 12 clear, sums it up. Suppose its good for villa though as we would be def down!
I certainly think that the link between what Ree K, Gav and Andrew have mentioned, ie, poor standard & bad ownership is entirely due to lack of leadership from the governing body, its not as if they don’t have a successful blueprint to copy in Germany, basically it’s jobs for the boys at top level football administration, pathetic. Belgium is another example, although fairly successful at both club and international level, a few years ago clubs were going bump or merging and the international team became a joke, clubs had to change tack and produce players rather than sign big names like Rensenbrink, Bosman, Papin etc, look at them now, they’d p*ss over England any day and although they aren’t producing top club teams yet, they are competitive to a degree.
Perhaps if the clubs debt to Lerner is settled, he’ll sell the club without making too much profit on it, we need someone to put a consortium together, possibly Mike Neville who’s bid was turned down by Herbert in favour of Lerner who gave him free tickets and parking and left that ridiculous name plate on the WITTON LANE stand.
PS
Whatever the build of the consortium it should definitely NOT include the aforementioned leech.
I’ve wondered about the level of play in the Premier League as well. It made me think about the closeness of all the teams. It has been mentioned that some of Villa’s results could have gone either way. So it stands to reason that results in other games could have also gone either way. I’m thinking that teams are unable to mount much of an attack or at times defend well and this could be because of parity in the league. It certainly seems to me that you could take the bottom 10 and mix them up blindfolded and no one would question the resulting table. It really is such a small difference between teams. Does this parity prevent good football? Or has the McLeish MO of playing not to lose crept into the thinking of all the teams on a less blatant note?
At the Premier + end of the table it’s obvious that money is the deal maker but parity rules at this level too. MU are certainly on a tear, maybe not the best MU team of recent years but they have confidence and teamwork on their side.
To a degree I think parity, the fate of falling out of Europe and the real chance of relegation has changed the way the game is approached. We mention that Villa has no pressure in the next two games due to the opponents they face but at the top every game has pressure placed on it and a less flowing game results. There are a lot of variables to the teams in the Premiership and to large degree dictate the type of play you see on the pitch.
Ian…
Agreed: It is all about increasing parity.
There’s more money distributed amongst more teams, which means quality is being distributed more evenly, hence…A very tight table. So very many games really could go either way.
At the same time, the blueprint for building a mid-table team is pretty well established. Part of it is the defense-first mindset that McLeish represents.
I know it doesn’t bring flowing football, but when you’ve got hundreds of millions invested, you’re much more concerned about getting results and staying up than you are about entertainment value.
And really, in sport there are only three options: win with offense; win with defense; have a good offense and defense.
If you’re strapped for cash and don’t have much firepower, going defense-first is the only thing you can do. And it’s firepower that costs the most and is the hardest to find.
I notice the play of Guzan and how everyone thinks the world of him. He also is a signing of Lambert. He could have gone anywhere.
Guzan has been a bit of a revelation. He’d always been a good shot-stopper, but I don’t think he’d had enough playing time to fully get the necessity of controlling the area, being aggressive, when to come for the ball, when not.
But somewhere along the line he picked that up. We’d have been in even more trouble had Given been our number-one this season. I understand a manager’s thinking in signing someone “proven”, and I don’t suppose McLeish had much time to really evaluate Guzan, or change his mind about bringing in a name keeper. It wasn’t a “bad” decision. It wasn’t, however, the better decision.
This is an example of what gives me confidence about Lambert’s thinking, re-signing Guzan then installing him as number one and not looking back. Lambert’s willing to take risks, and that’s a big part of what distinguishes him from O’Neill and McLeish.
Steamer–Turtle Island String Quartet. they do Jimi Hendrix and it’s different
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=atUBSc22WFA
Nice piece Ryan.
I don’t agree that we didn’t deserve the win – we had our chances and we took them.
For me, that is what good teams do. Sure, it wasn’t pretty but how many times do United do the same and get lauded as a great team for grinding out results.
All comes down to how one looks at it, but I personally think that it was a solid, if unspectacular, performance where we got what we deserved.
Matt ,
I’d agree with that , the one thing that villa do have is a potent strike force and they are just gonna have to outscore the opposition particularly their relegation zone peers for the rest of the season. I’m aware of how absurdly obvious that sounds but they cant rely on the midfield and defence to do anything but gradually improve for the rest of the season . I think we’ve passed the worst phase of our season but do expect to get spanked by the likes of Utd and maybe city ,if they’re in the mood. Everyone else are there for the taking.
Its gonna be close but I dont believe ,today, that villa will be relegated.
Appreciate that Ian, IMO, theirs not much point in copying music if it sounds the exactly the same as the original, it usually sounds inferior but that was really fresh, Nigel Kennedy does a lot of Hendrix now. At the moment i’m listening to old favourite Jimmy Buffet, sometimes you want to boogie others you need to unwind, next week it could be Beefheart, Deep Purple or James Taylor.
Hey Steamer,
An absolutely great afternoon with 2 good friends who I never saw again.
The week-end before I moved to Calgary from Vancouver I went to see a Jimmy Buffet concert on the top of Grouse Mountain. It overlooked Vancouver and the Strait of Georgia. Bright sunshine and we sat in Heather Bowl. We took a huge cooler of margaritas with us help keep hydrated.
Leaving the mountain, going down the gondola in a heavy state of inebriation, I looked for my motorbike in the parking lot. Finally, I hopped on, fired it up and flipped instantly. I had forgotten to unlock the steering. Obviously, I made it home that evening. Thanks for the memory.
https://www.google.com/search?hl=en&site=imghp&tbm=isch&source=hp&biw=1525&bih=679&q=grouse+mountain&oq=grouse&gs_l=img.1.1.0l10.1372.3462.0.7241.6.5.0.1.1.0.116.418.4j1.5.0…0.0…1ac.1.2.img.VE-YhlwUwnE
That’s a stunningly beautiful country Ian, what more could you ask for ? I was talking to S75 a couple of weeks ago and he’s really considering moving out your way, seems the only problem is avoiding peed up hippies on mangled motorbikes.
Guilty as charged.