A Talking Point About The Arsenal Match

When I saw Mings drive through to nip the ball away from Saka and get an accurate pass to the wing, straight away I felt that was great play on Mings's part. But Saka's reaction was typical of the player of the day, rolling over as though he'd been knocked over by a combined harvester. That was a feature of other Arsenal players, too.

The referee's reaction to award a free-kick and also give Mings a yellow card left me stunned. Pundits subsequently talked about the 'trailing leg' (of Mings) and how that justified the referee's decision. Some questioned whether it deserved a red.

Where else was Mings supposed to put his trailing leg? Was he supposed to wrap it up behind his back?

Saka subsequently complained about how he had been treated in the match and asked for more protection. He was talking of meeting the likes of Mings and Young. So, the Villa are now a lot of bully boys in the eyes of the Londoners are they?

That decision against Mings was so hard for me to comprehend, particularly having been brought up in the old school of football, when it was a hard game by comparison. A game made more so by heavy pitches and heavy footballs when it rained. But we enjoyed the game all the more, I feel, because the game was played from the heart, not by over-coached money-makers.

Yes, you had 'toughies' in the old game; players like Eddie Clamp (Wolves, in the 1950s), 'Chopper' Harris (Chelsea) and Giles, Bremner and Hunter of Leeds, players that would be at home in today's game. Perhaps Don Revie's policies laid the seeds of the modern game. 

However, I must admit that having heard stories of Frank Barson and George Cummings, perhaps the Villa were not short of one or two 'hard nuts'!

But back in the 1950s and 1960s they were not typical: most players tried to play a fair game, and did. And football was the name of the game, not persistent niggly fouling that we see today in the cause of winning at all costs. The likes of Tom Finney and Stan Matthews would surely raise their eyebrows at today's game.

I have a report of a game at Arsenal in the early 1950s when Villa's Stan Lynn (who was regarded by some as a bit of a 'toughie') admitted that he deliberately pulled out of a tackle as he intuitively knew he might badly injure the opposition player, just as that player was about to score. He was not willing to take the risk of that injury. For Lynn to admit that, it is clear that football then was more about fair play rather than winning.

Anyone who saw Dave MacKay of Hearts and Spurs (and, nearly, Aston Villa!) - a tough-looking man but a born footballer - admired his play. So too George Young of Rangers.

Anyhow, concerning that Mings play earlier referred to, I still have etched in my memory a tackle made at Villa Park some seven or eight years ago by Keiran Clark (remember him?). He went full tilt into the tackle on someone to such an extent that I held my breath. But he went through completely cleanly and came out with the ball. It was a full-bloodied tackle that - if it had been mistimed - would have been judged as dangerous and he would have been carded. But based on the referee's reaction to Mings's tackle, Clark's fair tackle would also have been carded by that referee.

Contact sport has never been intended for whingers. In my opinion, those ballerinas of the pitch asking for protection should properly study what the game is about.

Villa's Lion Has Gone Timid Again

That performance today against Arsenal was, I am sorry to say, mostly pathetic. Not just from the playing standpoint but also from the management that selected the team. A match that saw no Villa shots on goal until the last kick of the game.

Selecting Konsa was understandable if it was just from the point of view that Chambers is an ex-Arsenal player, and they may have used their knowledge of him to their advantage. It was unfortunate that Konsa had to give Chambers the opportunity in the first place. In selecting Young it was virtually a Hobson's Choice situation, and I felt that though his game was not error-free, he played well and did some good things.

But selecting that midfield package just does not work for me. Although McGinn - when on form - offers a 'bite' that is needed, they are all otherwise too similar in stature and general play to make a successful unit in my opinion. I continue to think that Sanson is needed and that Buendia and Coutinho cannot play effectively together.

And I did think that McGinn and Ramsey were ineffective and even sloppy at times. Also, too, was Watkins, who does good things but at times simple ball control seems non-existent.

Bailey and Ings - and perhaps Traore too - offered an attitude when they came on that should have been there from the start.

Let us  - please - have both Sanson and Bailey in the starting line-up. We need our team to show more force rather than pussyfooting around, which is what we seem to have started to do again in the last two matches.

It seems to be a case of taking two steps forward and two steps back, doesn't it? I know that West Ham and Arsenal possess more quality than Villa's previous three opponents, but you cannot get points off such sides if they are just allowed to play their game.

There is one further point. It is clear that the owners and management of the club want success. All Villa fans would like that too, but not so long back in history Villa had a desire to fight, and that has been the tradition of the club. Unfortunately, however, developments over the last 10 years or so at Villa Park seem to have caused Villa's pride to lapse. 

Coaching and tactics (by themselves) do not bring about the spirit to battle and win through. Gerrard - of all people - should know that. The players seem to be short of the needed self-belief, but only they can find it; no-one can coach it into them.

The Villa Park Roar has gone, and that was what used to inspire our players and scare the opposition, so it's now mainly up to the players.

Well, another international break is up, so that gives time for them all to think about themselves and what their attitude should be.

UTV!

Four-game Wrapup

Following Villa's submission to Watford, four games ago, and after the next week's away win against Brighton I thought I'd keep my quill pen dry in case it was a one-game wonder. After all, I was beginning to be less enthusiastic about Gerrard and I wanted to see just where the Villa was heading. I thought I would wait until after the West Ham match to pen more thoughts.

Well, Brighton, Saints and Leeds were dealt with quite admirably, and thoughts of being dragged down into the relegation zone evaporated. Especially as Coutinho, now playing just behind the two main strikers, seemed to be really getting into his game. After Southampton, Gerrard was left purring: “I thought at times - with all due respect to everyone else - he showed a level that was above the game. It was a pleasure to be in the stadium.”

Villa's new shape was looking good, too, over the three matches since Watford.

Then we went down to London to hammer the Hammers as well, only to be hemmed in instead. Moyes is a good manager. Everton need him!

To be fair, until the series of collisions started to take place later in the first half, I thought it was an interesting game that could go either way. But the half rather stuttered to a halt, and so it was with the second period too for quite some time as more injuries took their toll. In fact, after three-quarters of the match I was beginning to think that West Ham looked the more tired of the two teams after the mid-week exertions. Gerrard seemed to think so, too, sending Bailey on to mess up West Ham's day.

Problem was, West Ham had other ideas. They scored. Oh well, at least it was scored by a Ukrainian.

Little Phil had not done too much in this match to impress me. In fact, Little Emi seemed to increase Villa's tempo after coming on and finally presented young Jacob with a great chance which he took with aplomb.

So, a strange match. The Villa just did not have the magic needed to squeeze out a point, and that was quite disappointing as I felt that either Phil or Emi could have tried something special at least, to get that point.

It was perhaps more frustrating that Villa's stats in this match were better than the Hammers in every department. Yet we lost. Villa even only gave away three fouls.

Could it be that the defence is again losing vital concentration just when it is needed? Well, there's now a whole week for the Villa to think on this result and how the match was played. In some ways perhaps an end to 'the run' is better to ensure complacency doesn't set in.

Overall, however, I am impressed how Gerrard and his team have seen what was wrong and done something positive about it. What I have seen is far from the best they can achieve, however, but that will come with more time and a couple more team adjustments, I'm sure.

UTV!

PS Still puzzled why Sanson is not preferred to Luiz. [Later note: I have since learnt that Luiz played with a badly gashed mouth, so he did well in terms of toughness. But whether it was right not to replace him could be a question to ask.]