Two defeats since we last looked at Villa, both extremely demoralising in their own way. Losing 2-0 at QPR was the lowest point of the season so far (after Leyton Orient) but whereas that inspired anger, the way that Villa threw away what would have been an excellent and desperately-needed three points against Spurs was crushing. Here’s the latest attempt to sort the Good from the Bad from the Ugly of Villa’s latest two defeats.
Good
Villa’s opening quarter of an hour both at Loftus Road and Villa Park was marked by attacking intent. Although things quickly went south against QPR, there were at least shots on target.
At Villa Park the home side had already caused Spurs problems with Christian Benteke, actually posing somewhat of a threat for the first time since his return from injury, missing with a diving header from a superb Matt Lowton cross and then hitting the post when gifted a ridiculous amount of time by the Spurs defence.
Then the moment came. The moment that will stand tall in Villa’s history, alongside the 1890s, 1957, 1981 and 1982. We scored. Charles N’Zogbia, actually looking interested for large portions of the game, crossed in from the right for Andi Weimann to sweep in Villa’s first goal in a month and a half. 547 minutes of hurt over, just like that.
It must have been tempting for all Villa fans to turn off then and there and live in blissful ignorance of what happened in the remaining 75 minutes of the match. I know I wish I had.
Weimann, although often slated by Villa fans (he drifts through games without any sort of positive involvement far too frequently for my liking), has been the club’s most valuable player so far this season. He undoubtedly has a raw predatory instinct, it just needs honing.
The Austrian has either scored or set up 80% of Villa’s goals so far this season (80% sounds more impressive than four out of five, let’s be honest) and has an impressive 50% chance conversion rate in the league in 2014-15, scoring three times from six attempts.
We were seen as the heavy underdogs with the bookies, but Villa’s general performance against Spurs was impressive for large periods. The lead should have been more than one long before Benteke severely damaged our chances of victory with his sending off, and neither the team nor Paul Lambert deserved it to end as it did, no matter how predictable it was after Villa lost their heads.
[Click ‘Next’ for the Bad & Ugly]
Keep scanning BBC Sportsday for the latest news. Still no news of PL’s resignation/sacking…sigh
Absolutely atrocious piece of refereeing throughout the game that stole it away from us. Just gutted at what transpired in those last six minutes..I don’t dislike Lambert and he seems to be trying, but good lord, does he have any idea what is going on at Aston Villa? We almost never have any plan to curb a disaster from happening when things start to go against us. He has had three years to build things and we’re still in the same rut. Three years is more than enough time to gauge a manager’s abilities and how he is faring at a club. If anything he seems to be breaking all records set by Alex McLeish. By giving him four year extension we just showed that we’re desperate enough to have anyone at the helm. Virtually every thing that has happened since the dreadful day when we signed Alex McLeish aka The Serial Relegator of all people has been a disaster.
its a minor point but Gabby for nzogbia seemed like a substitution planned before kick off, specially since he’d already made a couple of breaks up the pitch after we went down to 10 men. it probably stands to reason that if you cant work out what sstyle you play before a match that you wont be able to read a game and make changes. i’ve resisted the Lambert out calls until now, im still not ready to launch into the campaign as i did for big eck, but its probably time to leave and let someone more tacticaly aware step in and work with this decent crop of players. UTV
May I make a suggestion …here goes , I’m not one for boycotting games because this affect the club financially so my suggestion is if those who want to protest about lambert buy a white t shirt and have lambert out printed on the back then just before kick of take of your jackets coats etc and turn your back away from the pitch so that the protest can be seen do this for one minute then get back to supporting the team for the rest of the match ,do the same just before the second half kicks of it will be seen by every one up and down the country it will be in every news paper it will be the sort of publicity this club needs to force lerners hand ,if we are not going to be vocal then this might be the best way to protest …….it’s up to you .
Understand your point. Villa really have shot themselves in foot with new contract for Lambert. Was never worth a new deal.
Andi Weimann is natural finisher but is being wasted on the wing!!!
Nothing personal against Lambert but finally, questions being asked of him. Can’t keep using limited transfer funds and takeover talk as excuse.
Into his third season at Villa, where is the progress?
EVERYONE!!!!!
LAMBERT OUT PROTEST AT WEST HAM ON SATURDAY.
WE HAVE HAD ENOUGH. LAMBERT IS CLUELESS AND INEPT. NO MORE EXCUSES. WE NEED TO BE MORE VOCAL AND LET HIM KNOW WE WONT STAND FOR THIS ANYMORE.
OUR BELOVED VILLA ARE SUFFERING AT THE HANDS OF LAMBERT AND HE NEEDS TO GO AND HE NEEDS TO KNOW THAT.
LAMBERT OUT PROTEST AT WEST HAM ON SATURDAY.
So how many times would you permit an opponent to thrust their head into your face ? It’s easy to criticise Benteke for reacting to extreme provocation especially as we need his goal scoring prowess . But I doubt there are many who would not react when not given the same protection by the ref as his opponents/tormentors were given . And I note Graham Poll has an article in the Mail criticising how the match was reffed