The Week In Villa (19)

Wednesday, 5th December

No real news today. More talk of Bent leaving, Villa players complimenting each other and we’re randomly linked with FC Cluj winger Modou Sougou.

Thursday, 6th December

A story came out yesterday that we have put Darren Bent up for sale for £18m. It originated from the website of the vile, repugnant Daily Mail (my opinion of course, not necessarily Vital Villa’s!) but it was quickly taken down, suggesting it was garbage. That does not stop various other sources jumping on the story, including one website who later in the day actually published an apology to the club, but even that STILL didn’t stop other sites running with the story later in the night!

Friday, 7th December

(and the next morning, too!)

Attentions turn to the Stoke game. Lambo mentions the fact that we can’t compete physically with them so have to do it in other ways. Vlaar is still expected to be out but Zog may return; I had forgotten about the latter to be honest.

Saturday, 8th December

No real surprises at the score/outcome here. What was pleasantly surprising was how we battled well and were the better side overall. Stoke are very difficult to break down these days and we do lack a tad of quality in the final third, so 0-0 was a likely scoreline as long as we could nullify their threat, which we did with surprising ease.

Despite our position, I have to say that relegation has never been a real worry for me this season and, keep it quiet, if we do some decent business in January, we could be in very real danger of returning to the pleasant lands of mid-table mediocrity. Heck, any team putting together a proper run could fly up the table (remember where we were in December of the season we finished 6th under DOL?) and now we’ve started turning defeats into draws, hopefully it won’t be long before we’re converting them draws into wins.

Like I said though – keep that quiet!

Sunday, 9th December

In a day of reflection on the day before, the general themes are Darren Bent being ineffective when he came on, Stoke being miffed at the injury team sending off and suggestions that we were the better team and in fact should have won it.

I concur with all of the above!

In other news, the ladies actually get to play this week, and beat the Baggies 1-0. Emma Follis grabbed the goal.

Monday, 10th December

Norwich tomorrow, and basically it’s a day of irritating questions for Paul Lambert about his former club and his current no. 9.

The U-21’s lose 2-0 to Man U. That darn Machida scored for them, as did Bebe, and that is an indication of the difference in the level of the two teams that went out there.

Interestingly, on the bench was Henry Cowans, son of Sir Gordon. Now, wouldn’t that be amazingly wonderful if he was to come through and be anywhere near the fantastic player that his Dad was? We can only hope… No pressure kid!

Tuesday, 11th December

We storm through to the semi-finals of the League Cup and sadly, I didn’t get to see it. Do you know what is really annoying about that? I was actually offered a ticket, but I am too darn ill to have gone. Argh!

Anyway, the general consensus from what I hear is that we were the better team but not ‘three goals better’, and also that Given was very shaky but did manage to pull off one world class save. Bent getting injured may have eased Paul Lambert’s life for the foreseeable future – it may have also jeopardised any chance of selling him next month if that is the plan. Finally, it gives PL a welcome headache of selection for the Liverpool game, with the likes of Weimann and Delph staking claims for starting berths.

That game is the first of three very difficult fixtures, as Plop are followed by Chelsea and Spurs. Hopefully we can take some heart and belief from the last couple of games, otherwise we could be in the bottom 3 come Christmas, and who the heck needs that!