Villa returned to action following the midseason interruption and lost an entertaining, wide-open game against an on-song Liverpool. It was great viewing for everyone but Villans, though it really wasn’t that rough for us, either. There were encouraging signs.
With Sawiris and Edens in town to watch, Villa battled against Chelsea, and on another day would’ve had a goal or two for their troubles. Perhaps they wouldn’t have either made or been punished for the two decisive errors. Could’ve had a result. Alas, ’twas not be. But losing to Chelsea was never the marker by which Gerrard’s body of work is going to be judged.
A few weeks ago we were largely filled with optimism. Now it feels like the bottom has dropped out. And somewhat remarkably, Steven Gerrard, Christian Purslow’s man-crush, is already fighting for his job.
Steven’s obviously still in search of his best XI, but at least he’s moving some pieces around. Sitting Coutinho and Ings may not seem ballsy to Villans, but that’s a lot of money on the bench (figuratively, anyway). It’s also a lot of money coming on, even if it doesn’t seem like it.
You’d think we should be past this, but it’s the first home match of the season and supporters are already on edge. A poor 0-2 defeat away to newly promoted Bournemouth will do that. I can’t pretend I have a lot to say that hasn’t already been said. Bottom line, Villa desperately need a win. That tends to be the case when there’s no feel-good factor and the team’s run of form under a new manager mirrors Gary Neville’s at Valencia. Villa basically seem to have stalled out.
