The pressure of expectation

By: Chris | November 26th, 2008

Morning fellow Villans – I’m Chris and I’m your new Aston Villa blogger at The Offside. I’ll get the plugs out of the way first: I blog at twofootedtackle and you can read my inane Twitter feed @twofootedtackle. While you’re at it, you should check out Mart’s new blog and of course VillaTalk.

Down to business. The Villa have had an odd few weeks, just getting past Blackburn Rovers before slumping to defeat by Newcastle United and Middlesbrough, and then picking up a superb win at the Emirates. On Saturday evening, we held Manchester United (or rather they held us) to a goalless draw at Villa Park. That leaves Villa in fourth place, yet many of us are still wondering what might have been.

So what happened against Blackburn and Boro? Well, Villa skipper Martin Laursen has been having a chinwag with the official website and seems to have identified the problem: being favourites.

On the face of it, he’s got a point. Beating Arsenal and drawing with Manchester United and Liverpool is all well and good, but we need to be that little bit stronger in our home games against teams like Boro and, of course, Fulham.

As always with Villa, it’s more talk than walk at the moment, but at least Laursen’s comments are right on the money:

“When we are the favourites against the so-called ’smaller’ sides, we have to keep hold of the ball and create chances. That’s where we can improve.”

Whatever us negative Brummies think about the situation, the facts are plain: we’re in the top four, we’re favourites at home against teams like Fulham (all due respect and all that) and we’re going to face a whole bunch of teams at Villa Park who fancy getting a result over a team that’s successful. They’ll defend, they’ll hit us on the break, they’ll be physical and they’ll fight hard for a result. It’s the down side of being noticed.

That’s why we need to impose our quality and our tempo on games against sides around the middle of the Premier League. Sure, we can fight hard on our day. But our real strengths are pace, stamina and being incisive. We need to make the most of that against teams who might struggle to deal with it.

With that in mind, the home game against Fulham on Saturday is going to be a real test for Villa. We’re not the underdog, we’re the favourite. Roy Hodgson will set his team up to frustrate the hell out of us, and they’re certainly good enough to do so. I’ll preview the game tomorrow, but it’s vital that Villa keep up the momentum built by two excellent results.

Here’s to a new era at Villa Offside – up the Villa.