Well, Villa played with spirit. Fielding the same team put out against the Palace, Villa at least stood up and put their bodies in the right places this time when it came to defending, and had the benefit of a fair amount of luck first half, as well as two superlative saves from Martinez. Shame that he was somewhat to blame for their first goal but, at that stage, the Gunners in fact deserved to be well ahead.
In the second half, Villa were a lot better, attacking-wise, than in the first half, in which Buendia again had at least one reasonable chance to score early on. But Villa just did not seem to have the 'extra' to create a clear-cut chance. Then, no soon as Luiz came on as a sub, he again produced his now-famous corner piece and fashioned Villa's equaliser, and that was it from Villa really. As before - Villa then soon let in their opponents to score and in fact gain their winner.
What is now very worrying is that Villa are now in 19th place and in 24 hours might even be in bottom place. Perhaps that's where Villa will be after Saturday once Haaland has been to do his demolition job. And then Villa must find the spirit - and attacking skill - to get out of the mire. The best we can hope for this season seems to be escaping relegation rather than looking to 7th place.
It's the attacking side of things that is the biggest worry after watching yet another game where the opponents were not just smarter in getting the ball back, but seemed to know what their colleagues were up to and passed accurately. Apart from Everton and possibly West Ham, all Villa's opponents this season - even Bournemouth - have been quicker, more alert and more accurate when it comes to going forward.
The Villa do not seem to have the answer in how to create chances. Even their centres invariably go to the heads of defenders. There seems to be little method: there's just spirit and dead ball chances now.
In a recent article, Ally McCoist reckons the loss of Michael Beale to his coaching team is playing a part in Steven Gerrard's current form at Aston Villa.
The revelation awhile ago that Gerrard was happy to delegate the coaching to Beale was worrying to me, and particularly so now that he's gone. It's effectively just like losing Dean Smith last season all over again as a new coach is leading them this season, albeit working to parameters that I presume Gerrard must have set.
Well, there's little else to say just now. At least we can say it was only a one-goal defeat, but the scoreline does not reveal what happened. I will doubtless have a better idea of the situation after the City match.
UTV!
No comments:
Post a Comment