A tight and scrappy first half that saw Villa ending up with a number of good balls into the box and 61% possession yet nothing to show for it opened up into an entertaining second half, with Villa ultimately fighting back to secure a well-earned draw.
Lambert kept the midweek team largely intact, with Marc Albrighton making his first EPL start of the season, Gabby and Benteke back up front, and CNZ making way for Bret Holman. Guzan, Lowton, Vlaar, Clark, Bennet, El Ahmadi and Fabian Delph all started.
Following a nervy start, Villa climbed into the ascendancy in the first half, and Holman was unfortunate not to score, a long, dipping shot having to be tipped over, followed by a great save from Foster on a deflected shot. Holman was put through nicely on the left by Albrighton. Albion could’ve scored early when Shane Long put a tame header weakly wide, but didn’t really fashion any more quality chances in the half.
Gabby did a great job holding up the ball and was all over the pitch. Albrighton delivered a number of quality balls into the box that Villa failed time and again to get on the end of.
Long thought he’d scored shortly after the restart, but was correctly judged offside. But just a minute later, with Villa again thinking West Brom were offside, a tricky cross into the box saw Vlaar thinking he’d swept it clear of danger only to have the ball fall straight onto Long’s foot and past Guzan.
It seemed unfair for Villa to go behind when Albion had posed little threat. Villa responded well, and had a chance to go ahead with Benteke just being denied by good defending.
But Albion survived and found their confidence, and Guzan was forced into action to slap out a cross that almost snuck in at 63 minutes, and came out to smother the ball a minute later. Albion had more edge, Villa seemed to have lost their way. Charles N’Zogbia, Darren Bent and Barry Bannan were brought on in order starting at 68 minutes.
And Lambert’s substitutions paid off with Darren Bent pouncing on a loose ball from a Clark effort that was blocked, slotting home wide to equalize.
The final 10 minutes were wide open, and either team could have won. In the end, while Villa might well have thought they’d done enough to win, a point seemed fair enough, and Villa will be glad to have fought back and gotten a result when it seemed that even a point might have slipped away.
It was good to see Bent starting on the bench, and good to see that Lambert could make three attacking substitutions that did have an impact. Benteke didn’t have the best game, but West Brom were deep with only Long up front. Delph and El Ahmadi paired up well, though Villa seemed to be missing a creative link to get a little more incision in the final third. More encouraging signs even if two more points were there for the taking.
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