Well, I had a nice day out on Boxing Day. So thought I’d better sober up and gather my thoughts before posting in the Aston Villa v Chelsea match thread.
I must admit, I am a bit surprised by the reaction of some, it is early days with our new manager and for me, we did ok. I know, I know, we lost, but …. well, they are a cut above, we all know that, money talks and they have spent massive sums over the years (part of the problem with this unbalanced league in my humble).
But first half, we were the better side, that has to be a positive, surely? And that was the better side even though some players are definitely not in form – Buendia is a worry, I was very excited by the signing, but he has soooo much improvement to make. Ings is a class striker, so is Watkins, neither are looking sharp though AND to be fair, the service to them at the moment is negligible. There is a pattern with Villa and strikers over the years (and fans then saying the strikers are rubbish instead of seeing we don’t play to their strengths or get them the service).
Video done on Boxing Day having had the odd drink or ten… The Ghost of Christmas Past!??!?!
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Snq72GgLSro
The penalty Cash gave was soft, but then if he hadn’t tackled and they’d scored, I guess we’d have been just as peed off? And generally, I think he’s a very good player for us, never looked out of his depth to me and always gives 100%. I thought the goal from Lakaku was all too easy, he bossed our defence, no doubt. Mings was the wrong side of him, tried a little nudge, when he should have been (as they said on MOTD highlights) attacking the ball. Their third goal, much like the one Man City goal against us, was scored when we were quite rightly pushing forward trying to get a draw, unfortunately you can’t give world class players space and not many teams have figured out how to contain that, other than putting 10 men behind the ball and still losing! I would much prefer us go down fighting, than playing negative football for draws, so got no complaints at that.
Would have loved a draw, we didn’t get it, they are a top side, we aren’t yet, but at least we played with endeavour and you can see what we are trying to do now. The key is that we have beaten the teams we ‘need’ to beat and haven’t been humiliated at all by any of the top clubs. The fact the new coaching people have only been here 5 seconds, that has to be a good sign for the future.
