Aston Villa got their new Premier League season off to the perfect start with a 1-0 victory away at AFC Bournemouth last weekend. Although many will claim that ‘it was only Bournemouth’, it’s always incredibly tricky to visit a newly promoted side on the opening day of the campaign and Tim Sherwood’s men produced an exceptional, hardworking performance to secure all three points against the Cherries.

Villa supporters are now incredibly excited for the remainder of the campaign and believe that Sherwood could be the man to lead the club for the foreseeable future. Despite losing Fabian Delph and Christian Benteke in the transfer window, Villa have remained calm and gone about their business smartly.

Micah Richards, who was recently appointed as ‘on-field captain’, is an excellent signing and brings vast amounts of Premier League experience to Villa Park. While some have criticised the former Manchester City defender’s injury record, he is an extremely talented defender and is more than capable of marshalling Villa’s back four after Ron Vlaar’s exit.

Furthermore, the club invested astutely in the likes of Jordan Ayew and Idrissa Gueye, with both players set for regular appearances this season. Meanwhile, Scott Sinclair moved to Villa Park on a permanent deal after impressing whilst on-loan from Manchester City. While two outstanding individuals have left, Sherwood has gone about building a great team.

Although inexperienced, Sherwood is a quality manager. The former Tottenham Hotspur midfielder is intelligent and isn’t afraid to try new formations and new styles of play. The loss of Benteke has forced Sherwood into tweaking Villa’s philosophy to accommodate new signing Rudy Gestede, but that worked a treat as the former Blackburn Rovers striker netted the winner on the opening day.

While the Premier League is incredibly competitive, Villa will fancy their chances of a much improved finish this campaign. Coral are offering 11/4 on Aston Villa to finish in the top 10 and Sherwood’s men are likely to be there or thereabouts as the business end of the season approaches.

Villa must improve their home form if they are to achieve this goal. Under Sherwood’s leadership, they finished last season on a high and will be looking to carry their confidence and form into the new term. They face a tough run of fixtures in September and will be looking to gain as many points as possible before entering the difficult spell.

With Sherwood at the helm, Villa stand a chance of surprising the Premier League this term. While they may not possess a team of naturally talented footballers, they have an excellent work ethic and are well organised defensively. With some hard work and a bit of luck, there is no reason why Aston Villa fans won’t be celebrating a top half finish at the end of the season.

Share On:
Facebook
Google +
This entry was published on / Matt Turvey. Posted in Aston Villa Blog, Terrace Talk. Bookmark the permalink.

The Author

Profile Photo
Matt Turvey
Matt is the owner of, and chief writer for, Aston Villa Life. He is also a columnist for the Wolverhampton Express & Star, appearing in the Kick Off pullout on Saturdays and the Final Whistle pullout the Monday after Aston Villa play, as well as every Thursday as a blogger on their website. He has previously been featured as a writer on Football365 and Life's A Pitch, and was a regular pundit for Sports Tonight TV on Sky.

Comments 37

  1. Trinity

    Hello.

    I think Villa can be a top ten team this year. I’m looking forward to the Crystal Palace match. That’ll say a lot about how well the team is coming together.
    Adama Traore will probably be incorporated into the team playing on the right wing. I’m looking forward to seeing him Grealish and Amavi in the same team. Our strikers should start scoring more goals soon because with the talent TS has recently brought in, opposing defences will be caught out more often, opening up more chances to score.
    Villa has more athleticism, strength and skill going forward this year. The key, as we’re all well aware, is that each individual needs to know what they must do and do their part for the team to come together as an effective and winning team on match days. If that happens and Villa can prevent other teams doing it, Villa will be a top ten side 🙂

  2. Heroes-and-Villans

    Its going to be a tough ask, i think the league is fairly strong this season. Very competitive. Id say we will finish 12th or 13th.

    A lot depends on if we can find a goal scorer. Not convinced the strikers we have now can hit 15 goals. Not to say i dont think in the future gestede or ayeuw can come good.

    Go and get austin. No brainer surly?

  3. Tony H

    I hate hate hate always losing to United. Especially the past couple,of years when United haven’t played well and still beat us.

    Amavi looks a proper player, so do Richards, Gestede and possibly Veretout. Two very disappointing displays from Ayew. I hated to see him dive on Friday – suggests poor character and out of form.

    Anyway – top ten looks difficult from this vantage point.

    UTV 1874

  4. John Lerwill

    Tony H: “I hated to see [Ayew] dive on Friday – suggests poor character and out of form. ”

    There was also Veretout who blatently went to kick his opponent in the stomach when they both went down on the deck, and then feigned that his opponent had done the same to him!

    AVFC players seem to be becoming like the rest.

  6. Mark King

    Oh dear not too many happy campers, personally I don’t think the question can be answered until we see Gil, Grealish, Adama plus whomever else we pull in ( we are supposed to be after wolves striker Benik Afobe ).
    This for me is 3/4’s of a team at the moment, not totally brilliant in defence but obviously not too shabby when looking at shots on our goal so far, I do think this is as much a team thing involving the midfield’s efforts as just the defences, a good thing.
    Going forward I thought we improved second half again on Friday and started to make some useful crosses into the box then brought on Gestede and stopped doing it and instead hammered the ball up to him. These are the things that will be ironed out as we gain fitness and knowledge and TS continues to access his troops.

    Will we be top ten? not if we stay the same which we most definitely won’t, TS took a while to get a tune out us last season he will this. So how good and how far we can go I can’t begin to guess at this point but I do think we will not struggle as we have previously.

  10. Heroes-and-Villans

    Mark

    I think it’s a bit flat because expecting a bit more going forward. Instead we get 1 shot on target, no goals and no points at VP.

    Really need to be hard to beat at vp.

    Whens the cut off point when we say we need to be seeing good results and performances? We are not the only team to have new players. If the players are good it shouldnt really be that hard to gel together. Its not the most dificult thing to play footy with each other!

    I like the look of Afobe but think we need a bit more proven striker. Austin or ade would be perfect for me.

    Apparently want a new gk and ade type striker.

  11. Heroes-and-Villans

    Not too sure of the 433 with westy vertout and gana. Did not seem balanced fri night.

    I think the major miss with delph gone is his ability to travel with the ball and go past a player.

    The ability to beat a man is massive. It turns play over and puts the other team on the back foot and causes panic in the other team.Not sure gana, vertout and def not westy can beat a man?

  12. Heroes-and-Villans

    I think 4231 would be a nice formation
    Horn
    Crespo Richards Lescott Amavi
    Gana Sanchez
    Adama Gill Grealish
    Austin

    That would be my dream team with Lescott, horn, austin to sign this window.

    The bench would be strong with Ayeuw Vertout, sinclair, gestede clarke, bacuna.

    Lots of players to rotate/rest and change a game

  13. Tony H

    I didn’t see that John. It’s not good – is it?

    I’m hopeful.

    At least Sherwood’s analysis of the game was fair and accurate. No penetration in the final third – disappointing and not a great game.

    Presentation-wise it’s better than: “We were excellent but we’ll go again.”

  14. Mark King

    Andrew- To be fair we lost to a deflected shot which would probably hit guzan and they only had 2 shots themselves, should of had a pen and at least 1 player from either side should of walked, Darmian and veretout.

    Hope one of Gil or grealish ( who can dribble ) gets a run at palace and either gabby or Ayew sits on the bench for Kosak or Gestede

  19. Paul Pears

    I think Austin is a must for Villa. We need a proven striker in the box, who is quick to respond and beat the opposition to the ball.

    I was disappointed with Clarke on Friday night, he never once took the ball forward and used to good use, it was always sideways, and mainly to Richards. he seems almost afraid to make a mistake.

    Comments on other players, which have already been made on here, I mainly agree with, and the balls into the box, were just too easy to deal with, and should have been more penetrating and not a constant gift for the keeper, but we will get better.

    The most important thing to me , was that Villa showed a lot more composure, and did not seem , edgy, like they have in the previous seasons under Lambert.

  21. Liam Scahill

    Top half is out of the question in my opinion, all existing teams in the premiership have improved. I think this is the first time in premiership history that every team genuinely possess two/three players of true quality capable of hurting the big boys.

    The newly promoted teams are no mugs, they will be no whipping boys.Norwich may well be the weakest in terms of squads but Alex Neil is a fine manager and tactically astute. When one attempts to pick the relegation boys Sunderland spring to mind and seem to be in disarray already managed by a man whom didn’t want the job in first place.

    As for the Villa we will have ups and downs but hopefully by Feb/March the specter of relegation will not be haunting us as much as previous years. Judge this newly formed team after 10/15 games lets get behind them. We all deep down have wanted a squad overhaul for years maybe not one which manifested itself by our club captain snake & Belgian talisman jumping ship but it’s happened.

    From the ashes of a failed takeover we now have a young energetic squad of “potential” not mentally damaged by previous horror shows like the infamous 8-0 slaughter at the hands of Chelsea not so long ago. We need a striker and I echo the callings for Austin even tho I venomously usually disagree with signing overpriced & over-hyped English players.

    Our creative players are returning to the coal face, the training ground must be reinvigorated with new additions eager to prove their worth and establish themselves in the a squad that has basically been formed in a matter of weeks. Lets be patient and enjoy the ride.

  22. Mark King

    watcha Liam- Patients is indeed needed, along with a return to fitness of Gil and Grealish, then Adama to turn out to be the buy of the season, and buy a right back, oh and a dose of realism 🙂

  24. Texas Villan

    For my money, I’d prioritize an Amavi-quality right-back before another new striker. I’d still love to see Kozak be given a fair shake in meaningful matches, combining with Gil and Grealish to see if they can create vital partnerships.

  25. Ian

    It’s quite possible for Villa to finish in the top half but looking back over the last few seasons there wasn’t much separating 7th to 17th. Also a few of the teams had atrocious seasons then managed to put a bit of a run together and escape the plug hole. Villa being one of those teams. All the teams have improved but all the teams save the top 4 are only one extended injury away from disaster. It’s got to the point that even the middle teams need a strong bench just to survive and I think Villa have done that. Not enough to light up the league but enough to weather most problems that can occur.

    I was amused by Lambert’s quote about being on death row.

Leave a Reply