Prince empathy, beautiful sunsets and top-half position
Well, Villa should be beating bottom of the table teams when they play them at home. Still, it wouldn’t be the first time Villa have failed to do that. Sunderland were coming into the game at Villa Park with five-straight away loses, and were always likely to get something, since Villa Park always seems to be an inviting place to end such runs. To be fair, Sunderland had the best chances to take all three points. Not an ideal game for a prince to see Villa for the first time, but still there were some reasons to be cheerful as a Villa fan…
1. Clean sheet and top half in the league. After the worrying opening to the game on Monday night against West Brom, the defense was on the whole pretty solid today, although to be fair, a better team than Sunderland would have put their chances away. Still with the point in the bag, Villa have now somehow moved into the top half of the league.
2. Well, they say some kings don’t have empathy with their subjects, but at least when Prince William comes to the throne, he’ll know exactly what it is like to be a suffering Villa fan after watching that dour 0-0 display.
3. Marc Albrighton at least added some forward momentum to our game. It was good to see him back and the Villa winger may have a vital part to play in the Christmas period. He at least gives Villa some extra attacking options. Benteke needs service and he needs it quick!
4. It is now easier to make the decision to drop Christian Benteke from your Fantasy Team. If he’s getting any service in the real football world, then there’s no point having him in your team in the fantasy one.
5. If you were sitting in the Doug Ellis stand at least you had a nice view of the dramatic sky, even if the game below it was a tad on the boring side.
PS – Villa have moved above West Brom in the league…although that’s no real biggie, is it?.
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Can only agree – I don’t think Benteke is trying. Maybe a January sale has already been agreed.
Good to see Albrighton back and maybe he’ll get a start soon.
Can’t understand why Lowton isn’t playing.
KEA is improving.
6. Lambert seemed to finally realise that width is good at home
7. Lambert might also be realising that Kozak’s form is much better than Benteke
8. Luna, Delph, Gabby and Wiemann are back
On the down side, Bentekes form is terrible and its not down to lack of service. Also, no goals and lack of movement from Andi and Gabby means that the only one looking to attack recently is Tonev and his end product is still improving. But like you say, unbeaten November is huge!
The key to the end of season success last season was the movement of Benteke, Gabby and Weimann. They don’t seem to have the same dynamic this season.
BTW – In November: Four games unbeaten with three clean sheets. We’re just naff going forward.