The West Ham Manager Looked Be-Moyse-d!

Yes, David, you perhaps have a right to be rueful-looking watching how Villa broke away to score the third and fourth goals. At that time, West Ham, having come back to 2-1 following their fortuitous goal, were striving to make a break-through and a Villa of old might just have caved in.

But the Villa showed clearly that they have a superior quality stemming from confidence when on the ball, and that appeared to be the difference. Those third and fourth goals were super-confidently taken. But it wasn't just Villa's quality in scoring those goals; in the first half Villa largely controlled the match and, indeed, should have gone in at the interval two or three goals ahead, not just the single well-taken goal.

In the first-half Villa's play was patient and sometimes very piercing as they 'transitioned' the ball through. How Watkins didn't score from his one big chance, and how their keeper saved Douglas Luiz's top-corner-bound shot, are two big questions. For the rest of Villa's shots, they were mostly wastefully wide of the mark when they should have done better.

But those third and fourth goals made up for all that.

So, four home league games and 17 goals scored in the process. This is a Villa Park performance that is way overdue and I believe there's a good chance Villa will score 50 or more goals at VP this season. If we can improve the away play and the results, that would be something.

Performances from all the team were good today, but McGinn was not much in it apart from flashes and particularly an excellent ball to send Watkins away for the third goal. Zaniolo played a better team game today, but I think a fit Ramsey would get the nod over him.

UTV!

The Wolves Were The Real Villains

A mostly awful match to watch, but then it was a derby and derbies have often brought up such situations. Wolves with 19 fouls against them, and a red card to boot, demonstrated they are a team of spoiling tactics, with a couple of their players falling over like flies because of a knock or two.

The Villa, though, should have had the game wrapped up in the first 15 minutes. Initially, Wolves looked a bit nervous facing their local rivals who had scored six last time out, and McGinn really should have scored his 20th Villa goal today with two shots that were good but inaccurate. 

So Wolves, having got through that period, must have thought they had a chance of winning, and very occasionally that workmanlike but scrappy team looked as though they could do that while spoiling Villa's chances of making progress with niggly fouls. That trip from behind just as Watkins was about to shoot near the end should have produced a penalty, but the referee wasn't interested. And there were other fouls that went unpenalised.

We should have won, but I'm grateful that Villa didn't lose this difficult match, unlike Man City last week.

The team looked a bit tired I thought, and now for a break for those not in international squads, and extra time for Ramsey and others to recover from their injuries. Then we go again.

Considering that we're without Ramsey, Buendia, Moreno and Mings, and Tielemans not yet coming up to scratch, we are not doing badly at all.

UTV!