West Ham 0-1 VILLA: Aston Villa third at Christmas

By: Chris | December 21st, 2008

On Christmas morning, I’ll log on to the internet just to have a look at the Premier League table.

Liverpool, Chelsea, Aston Villa. Magic.

Yesterday’s victory over West Ham United was certainly more by luck than judgement. Personally, I think Villa were very poor at Upton Park and were fortunate to get anything at all from the match. James Milner’s cross settled it in the end, deflecting viciously off Lucas Neill and leaving Robert Green motionless in the Hammers goal mouth.

West Ham supporters will tell you that their luck on the day was bad – that’s not true. What cost them yesterday was brilliant goalkeeping from Villa’s Brad Friedel and the fact that Carlton Cole makes Ade Akinbiyi look like Jean-Pierre Papin. That’s not bad luck, that’s a bad signing.

For what it’s worth, West Ham were comfortably the better team from where I was sitting, but we created a few golden chances too. Still, how often has lady fortune kicked the Villa in the bollocks? Exactly.

As I said, we were poor yesterday. But Friedel was phenomenal, and Gabriel Agbonlahor and Ashley Young had little to feed on. Nigel Reo-Coker, facing unjustified abuse from the West Ham support that scapegoated him in his last season in East London, added a touch of class at right back following Carlos Cuellar’s injury.

So, with Manchester United playing the World Club Championship in Japan (which they’ve just won, thanks to a tidy goal from Wayne Rooney), Aston Villa are third in the Premier League at Christmas. Even better, we’re four points from the top – prompting much misguided talk of Villa as ‘title contenders’.

On Match of the Day last night, Jonathan Pearce asked Martin O’Neill if Villa could win the Premier League.

Martin: “Have you been drinking?”

Technically, we’re in the title race at this moment. But realistically, we’re simply winning the race for fourth with Arsenal. Being in third and so close to the top just means we’re all the more likely to keep fourth place come season end. It won’t do us any harm in attracting players in January either.

A happy day to be a Villa fan.