Villa beating Chelsea didn’t look likely but the manner of the defeat was just too predictably pathetic to take much consolation…
Prognosis Negative?
Villa beating Chelsea didn’t look likely but the manner of the defeat
was just too predictably pathetic to take much consolation in the inevitability. It was a pity though because Villa had looked every bit as okay as Chelsea for the first thirty minutes, and had their chances, but once Brad had shown why he probably failed trigonometry and Jolie had failed to control an over-hit pass under pressure, there was only going to be one winner, and then with a freakish back-heel deflection Alan Hutton made it a certainty. I think Chelsea’s top striker Own-Goals, who has three, overdid the celebration.
There was a certain amount of mileage to be had in the manner of woulda, shoulda, coulda. Like, Lescott coulda hoofed it into the stand and given Guzan a bollocking for his failure to read the situation but then dressing-room tensions would have been quickly added to Villa’s menu of woes, but he did the brave thing, took the blame, and had to wait for Alan Shearer on Match of the Day, to make a case for his partial exoneration. In the outcome he took one for the team and if he felt hard done by, he coulda phoned up his mate Moin Younis to cheer himself up.
Then came the Weasely One backing shyly into the limelight and having blamed everyone but himself for Chelsea’s poor start, did his best to take some credit for his gift-wrapped three points, which kind of made it worse. There is always a lot to be said about bad losers but too many managers are bad winners too, and on days like Saturday and with men like Mourinho, magnanimity is a rare commodity. As Dr Eva Carneiro might say, if she could do an impression of Blanche DuBois – He ain’t the gen’leman I was expecting.
Sherwood demonstrated he is still resolutely confident in his post-match interview and there was not even a hint of self-pity or doubt to be seen. He dealt with the pressure and the questions admirably and there was not a trace of the whining paranoia Mourinho had shown in his interview. If you didn’t know who the managers were, you would assume Sherwood was the manager of Chelsea, rather than the other way round. He didn’t quite do a Ron Saunders and challenge the interviewer to ‘bet against us’ but he came close. So he’s definitely got the stones but has he got the know-how?
What the betting is for Villa beating Swansea on Saturday I have no idea but I would be surprised if the visitors weren’t the favourites. The news has it that Garry Monk is under pressure because his team hasn’t won since August but with Villa top of the bad form league and embedded in the bottom three of the Premier League, it wouldn’t be difficult to guess what the bookies and the pundits think. But with Newcastle battering Norwich, while looking both brilliant and terrible in the same game, Villans can only hope that it is their team’s turn to be smiled upon by the football gods, and get the win they so desperately need.
I am not sure a draw would be enough to silence the doubters or stop them trying to persuade Tom Fox to pull the trigger on Sherwood, but Villa definitely need to get something from the game if their plight is to remain within reach of remedy come January. Looking at the weather forecast, we can only hope Villa play better in the rain, or else a hard rain’s a-gonna fall.
Keep the faith!
