Monday night’s game at home to Manchester City had been billed as a game where either side are quite capable of breaking into the top four. Manchester City with the help of the ruler of Abu Dhabi and Aston Villa with Cleveland Brown’s owner Randy Lerner. For too long the Premiership has been dominated by the ‘Big Four’ and over the last couple of seasons the likes of Tottenham Hotspur, ourselves and Manchester City have tried and failed to break that top four, with the exception of course, of Everton back in 2004/05.
Villa have started off the season pretty well, only losing twice, admittedly to teams we should really be beating in Wigan Athletic and Blackburn Rovers respectively. Both games were has bad as each other and with the Blackburn away day usually one of only a handful of away days I genuinely look forward to, it turned into a massive disappointment, unlike the 3,500+ Villa fans who made the long journey north, the team however failed to turn up. So it was with a little bit of pessimism that I approached last night’s game.
The return of Gareth Barry to Villa Park was always going to be the main headline and thankfully didn’t distract too many of us from spoiling what was a great game and a wonderful advert for Premier League Football (EPL if you must!!!!).
But before I carry on, I’d like to discuss the difference in how two former legends of both clubs were treated by their former fans. Richard Dunne, having so far made only a handful of appearances for Villa, appears to have settled in brilliantly, and thought the respect shown to him by the Manchester faithful was fitting for a player who had given them nearly 10 years service before his move south to Birmingham, now compare and contrast the reception that Gareth Barry received from the Holte Army. Here lies my problem. Gareth had been vilified for joining a team who are no doubt better equipped (financially) in breaking into the top four, yes he’s earning over double what he was earning at Villa Park, but does that make him public enemy number 1?. Surely, if you had chance of promotion within your line of work and were offered more money with it , you would take it, wouldn’t you?.
Richard Dunne celebrates with his new Villa team-mates after heading them into a 1-0 leadI made my mind up ages ago that I would neither boo nor cheer/applaud him throughout the game, footballers come and go and has so many pundits now say there is little or no loyalty left in football, it’s all about chasing the next big payday.
What I enjoyed about Monday night was that the effort was there and most of the players seemed up for it. Now fair enough, I’m quite east to please, all I want to see is a team full of players who are interested in playing for the Villa, win, lose or draw and apart from the petty booing I thought the atmosphere was the best of the season so far as well. We could and probably should have scored early on and it would have been a shocker as it would have come from open play not a set piece. Gabby (Agbonlahor) was so unlucky and Shay Given, as he so often is, was there to make a great save. I thought the first half was largely ours and the goal by Richard Dunne was very much deserved. Has the Villa masses went wild, Dunne made a nice touch I thought by not over-celebrating his first goal in Villa colour’s in a show of respect to the fans who had idolised him for all those years, they reciprocated by applauding him back. I doubt we would have done the same had Barry scored last night. Barry I thought looked shaky from the start, it wasn’t a commanding performance that we so got used to during his time at VP, but not a bad one all the same.
I’m not going to get picky and point out the frailties of our performance after all Villa came out and at least the majority of the team put in the effort. You could look at why we think we’ve won after one goal and why our strikers don’t shoot but then you could also look on the other side of things and see just how our defence has improved since the loss of Martin Laursen in the summer. If only we had bought in a in and out goalscorer like Darren Bent, which I must admit I had been harping on about during the transfer window, instead we have to put up with the likes of Emile Heskey who made a brief appearance off the bench and within 5 minutes looked knackered and not at all interested, still some will say the same about John Carew, but when he wants too he can still bang the goals in.
We all know that Gabby still isn’t perfect but playing him up front has seen a vast improvemnt on his performances this season, rather than relying on his pace and sticking him out on the wing last season. He is finally looking like a threat up front and giving defenders plenty to worry about, I hope Ashley Young take’s note of Gabby’s new found attitude to football, perhaps being dropped from the England squad will give him a much needed wake-up call.
Then the turning point, Stepehen Ireland was brought on to replace Nigel De Jong who I thought had potential but was given the run around in midfield and was never really a threat from the start. Ireland is a quality player and so it proved has he started the move that lead to the equaliser, finished by that horrible little bloke but quality player mind, Craig Bellamy, who to be honest had a very quiet game I thought up until the equaliser. And that was about it apart from the 5 added minutes at the end of the game, which I’m still trying to work out where they came from. I would have taken the draw at the start of the match so I left VP relatively happy. My Man of the Match, well I’ll have to give it to two really were James Collins and Richard Dunne. Collins was solid as anything and Dunne who was also immense at the back and oh so unlucky not to grab a brace.
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