The week’s roundup, West Ham and Bolton (5-1!)
By: Ryan |
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A bit of a roller coaster ride it has been this week, after a couple of draws we saw ourselves dropping three more points at West Ham, I was bitterly disappointed to say the least, so much so I failed to write this blog at the time. But it’s all about bouncing back, and I *think* its safe to say we have managed that today at home to Bolton.
5 glorious goals by 5 different team members, glad to see Young getting back into form the last couple of games, Milner getting on the score sheet for all his hard work, as well as goals from John Carew, Gabby Agbonlahor, and Cuellar of all people! It was a fantastic game, Villa really did play well together, pushing forward all the time and making some brilliant passing moves, something which has been lacking somewhat in the last few games. Agbonlahor gets into some great positions, but his finishing really does let him down sometimes, he really needs to work on that. Glad to see the youngsters getting some playtime, Delfouneso and Delph coming on for the last 10 minutes.
Villa Park is becoming a fortress, its just those away games we need to start collecting more points from. Burnley forced a draw at Man City which will help our top 4 challenge, although Tottenham won which means we are sitting in fifth, just outside the holy grail that is the top 4.
UP THE VILLA!
Rx
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Category: Misc
Everton 1 – Villa 1
By: Ryan | 1 Comment
Another draw. Initially I wanted a win, Everton are doing their usual start of season slump, and I wanted to take advantage of their bad form, but in retrospect, an away draw is satisfactory against a good team, and it was the fair result.
We are in the middle of a bunch of away games, as well as a hectic schedule, it was nice to see MON make a different change from the usual Heskey on for Carew, or Carew on for Heskey, may his hand was forced due to the injury of Milner, but it’s still nice to see a different squad from the usual, and it paid off with a goal straight after the second half kick off.
Now, the heavy schedule would suggest we need to mix it up a bit, MON likes playing the same squad week in, week out, but we do have a bit of depth now, and a change could be for the good. We have gone a bit stale, especially in front of goal, maybe the youngster Delph could mix things up a bit, or maybe NRC could come back in, Sidwell seemed to be lacking a bit. Warnock did extremely well, he pushed forward on the overlap and that’s what we need, Ashley came back into form as well, and Abonglahor used his pace well as always.
Our game in hand is to be played Wednesday, against West Ham, a difficult game in its own right, but then we’ve got Bolton three days later, I surely wouldn’t want to be MON right now, and I’m unsure as to Milner’s injury.
A win against West Ham would boost the lads confidence for Bolton, but we need maximum points to keep up the pressure on 4th place, which our main contenders at the moment seem to be Man City, with Spurs close behind. I wont mention Liverpool.
Rx
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Guzan saves 4 penalties in one night!
By: Ryan | 2 Comments
Unbelievable. I was ready to write this blog all about how we cant seem to score goals anymore, how a good defence on its own can’t win every game, but I simply cant take it away from my boy Brad. I’ve liked this guy from day one, and the fact that he’s so young and our RESERVE keeper can only keep us in good stead for the future between the posts.
I didn’t watch the match, but I did follow the updates on the Villa website and on Sky sports news, seemed to be a game of few chances, and those few chances seemed to be Sunderland’s. This worry’s me quite a bit, our last match against Wolves was kind of the same, some very poor passes and crosses leading to us losing possession and just not performing in the final third.
I reserve final judgment until Everton, I’m hoping the boys can redeem themselves in attack. As far as tonight goes my hat goes off to little Brad, and most importantly, WE ARE THROUGH!
Rx
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Wolves Vs Villa Preview
By: Ryan | Add Comments
Derby day again, I’m expecting a Villa win. After our win at home against Chelsea last week, the boys will be brimming with confidence, but we should really be weary of our opposition, these are the games which decide whether your top four material or not, it’s no good beating Chelsea one week and losing to a team placed in the lower half of the table the next.
Team news is as expected, should have the same squad available we had at Villa Park last week, unsure whether MON will play a 4-4-2 again, or go with the 4-5-1, really thought it was gonna be our downfall last week playing the 4-4-2 against a club like Chelsea, but what do I know. Wolves away is a completely different kettle of fish, but we need goals, something we are lacking this season, we’ve only let in 7 goals all season, but our goal difference is the lowest of all the top clubs. This game could be great for Carew (or dare I say it Heskey) to get a couple on the score sheet, It’s a wide pitch, Young and Milner should enjoy the width and be able to put some great crosses in for our big guys up front to get a hold of.
My prediction is 2-0 to Villa, but I would love to see us push a 3 or 4-0 and show our rivals we’ve got the attack to go with our rock solid defence.
R x
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Villa’s defence 2 – Chelsea 1
By: Ryan | 2 Comments
Goals from Dunne, Collins and Drogba for Chelsea.
Well there it is, not quite my original prediction of 2-0 but certainly a fantastic scoreline, and thoroughly deserved. I ventured up to Villa Park with my best mate Nick, and I’m still smiling now watching Match of the Day. Was a cracking game, I’m really pleased with our new look defence, we are really working as a team, we defend as a team, attack as a team, its fantastic to see. Dunne and Collins play like they’ve been playing together for years!
We worked hard, very hard, especially Abonglahor, Petrov and Milner (as always!) they all covered a lot of ground and helped out the defence a number of times. My only gripe with the team today is with Ashley Young, tremendous last season but lacking in this one. Countless times he either lost the ball, failed to cross, failed to shoot when on the edge of the box in acres of space and even failing to back up the attack a couple of times, once I remember Warnock pushing forward with Young walking in his own half. But saying that, he did put in a few great balls, and of course assisted both goals from the corner flag, just a little bit more effort needed Young, take a leaf from Milner’s book. Carew should always get a mention, but I should be writing about Villa’s third goal here, because he should of buried a brilliant move from Young to Milner to Carew, but it went straight over Cech’s goal.
Not taking anything away from Chelsea, they played some fantastic football, and really put the pressure on us in the second half, this certainly wasn’t an easy win, but that just makes the victory that little bit sweeter.
This result proves we are genuine Top 4 contenders, but looking at the table, there are a few more contending for that spot, its gonna be a close one. But bring it on, we’re ready for ya!
Abonglahor starts for England
By: Ryan | 2 Comments
About time I say, only 30mins have past and he hasn’t let himself down, contributing to the first goal and showing he really is a threat. I’m hoping he gets his first senior goal for England tonight, will fill him with confidence for Saturday.
I really thought Milner would be starting too, lets hope he at least gets subbed in with enough time to make an impact.
65mins in Gabby is subbed for Carlton Cole, not a bad innings, would of liked to seen more though. Overall Gabby did well, didn’t get the goal, but made a valuable contribution. Lets hope he’s on that plane next summer!
Rx
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Category: Player NewsHeskey wants to leave….
By: Ryan | 8 Comments
So Heskey wants to leave, who can blame him? He rarely starts for Villa and its even rarer for him to actually make an input when he is playing. All this makes it unbelievable that he is still playing for England, but even still, Heskey wants a seat on that plane next summer.
In my opinion Heskey is past it, Capello doesn’t have unlimited options up front, but he certainly has better options than Heskey, Abonglahor for one, not to mention the likes of Defoe, Cole, Crouch and even Owen!
For Villa this couldn’t be better news, I remember reading a statistic which stated that during his time on the pitch, Villa have only scored 5 goals, and without him on the pitch scored over 20. Maybe this will put Heskey in MON’s bad books and he wont play him, we have a much much much better striker in John Carew, who actually scores goals and makes a difference on the pitch, so lets sell up and buy someone who can compete with Abonglahor for a starting place.
R x
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Villa blog returns…. again.
By: Ryan | 1 Comment
Some of you may remember me from before Andy, I started blogging just before I was due to move house, and alas the wonderful BT delayed my internet connection for over a month, so wasn’t able to blog, therefore Andy took my place. But now I have returned! Hurray!
Better late than never then, Villa have had a decent start to the season, maybe if MON had pulled his finger out we would of made the key signings before the Wigan game and we would of had a better start to the season, but lets not dwell on the negative. We now have one of the best defense’s in the league (as far as stats are concerned) level with Chelsea with a total of just 6 goals against. Thanks for this go to our completely new back four, Richard Dunne in particular, who has been fantastic since he joined us.
We have depth now, something we haven’t had in recent years, and when some of our injured players return, MON will really have a tough time deciding the starting eleven. Lets just hope he realises Heskey really isn’t good for the team.
My tickets for the Chelsea match next Saturday came today, and I really cant wait for this one, we have had some good results against Chelsea, lets make it another.
Until next time.
R x
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Category: Premier LeagueSEASON STARTS TOMORROW VS WIGAN
By: Andy | 3 Comments
Firstly I would like to apologize for the lack of updates recently. Grad school just started and I have been a little pressed for time. Unfortunately I didn’t get around to the rest of the preview sections. But, because we open at home against the Latics tomorrow, and I am extremely excited, I have reprioritized my life and THE VILLA BLOG = #1!!!
Villa Park will need to be our fortress this year, isnt it beautiful…
Match Preview After the Jump!
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Season Preview: Goalkeepers, Defenders
By: Andy | 2 Comments
Hello everyone. Villa’s preseason is well under way and its almost over! Only two and a half more weeks until we kick off at Villa Park against Wigan. Today I will take a look at what we have at the back as of now (hopefully MON shores it up a bit) and some of our pre-season preparations…
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