Aston Villa’s Season In Focus

So there you go, the season is over and Villa once again finish 6th and for a second season in a row, (for the first time in over a decade), qualify for the UEFA Cup… next season being re-named to the Interflora, or Europa or some other silly name!

We finished 2 points above last seasons haul of 60 points, won 1 more game and lost the same amount. Our goal difference was significantly worse but in the end that didn’t matter league placings wise. 2007/2008 we had a +20, this season we had a +6

2008-2009

6. Aston Villa 38 17 11 10 54 48 62

2007-2008

6. Aston Villa 38 16 12 10 71 51 60

Top Scorers

Our top scorer was John Carew with 15 goals despite missing 20 odd games through injury. (11 PL, 1 FA Cup, 3 Uefa) Gabby Agbonlahor was next with 13 (12 in the PL and 1 in the Uefa). Then Ashley Young with 9 (7 PL and 2 Euro) and Gareth Barry with 8 (5 PL and 3 Euro)

Gabby started 45 games (35 in the PL and made 1 sub appearance in PL, 3 in all comps). John Carew started 25 games (only 18 in the Premiership with 9 sub appearances)

Looks like those stats illustrate the gulf in class between the two strikers?

Home Form:

Our home form saw us 10th in the league with just 7 wins, 9 draws and 3 losses. Only 3 teams lost less than us at home (Manchester United 1 loss, Liverpool 0 losses, Chelsea 2 losses and Arsenal were equal on 3 losses)

We drew more games at home than any team other than Middlesbrough who were equal on 9.

It is the win ratio that let us down, only Blackburn Rovers, Middlesbrough, Newcastle United, Sunderland and Hull City had worse win records at home than Villa.

Away Form:

Our away form had us 6th. We won more away (10 games) than any team other than Man Utd, Liverpool and Chelsea.

We had only 2 draws, a record matched only by Chelsea and Boro and lost 7. Only five teams lost less on the road, Chelsea, Liverpool, Man Utd, Arsenal and Everton.

Overall form:

Villa won 17 games, a record matched by Everton and beaten only by Arsenal (20), Chelsea (25), Liverpool (25) and Man Utd (28).

We draw 11 games, the only teams to have drawn more than us overall were Newcastle United, Everton and Arsenal.

Villa lost 10 games, only the teams above us lost less (9, 6, 5, 2, 4 respectively)

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So there you have it, another season done and dusted. I’d hoped and dreampt of more and the quotes from the manager suggested so did he but the transfers brought in weren’t enough to compete in all competitions as we soon found out when the going did get a bit tough. Maybe now we’ve shown we can, albeit not til the end, poke our noses into the top four, we’ll be able to attract the next level of player? If we can then we can push on next season, if we can’t then it could be a bumpy ride…!