Aston Villa vs Arsenal – The Result

 

Negatives

Being a Villa fan I am going to start with the negatives – 1 minute of madness!  The first goal was a result of Lowton switching off allowing the Arsenal wide man to stroll into a great position to swing in a cross, then Wilshire wasn’t tracked has he made his way into the box BANG 1 nil.  No problem we will come out fighting wont we… no Delph will make an uncharacteristic mistake on the ball allowing a swift attack and a Giroud goal – 0-2 and game over!

Listening to a few Villa fans and pundits on the way home I found myself disagreeing with a lot of what I heard – Sack the manager! 95% of Villa fans want Lambert out! Etc when asked who should replace Lambert one fan piped up with Vialli and Zola?!!? Is Vialli even alive? And Zola sacked by West Ham and Watford, is that the best we can do?! Then stick with Lambert.

 

Positives…sort of

At the moment the football is pretty poor and the players lack quality but I don’t know of a realistic managerial target that could do much better given the transfer kitty on offer.  I think Lambert has been a little unlucky with injuries (Okore, Nzogbia and Kozak) and that he is still building.  We needed a competitive squad and we now have that, yes we need to add some experience and more quality but we now have competition for places that will help us going forward.

In the second half we kept fighting, we didn’t really look like getting the second goal but let’s not forget that Arsenal are currently sitting Top of the league.  As long as we have a go I will keep the faith.  The crowd will always be lifted when the players pile the pressure on, goal or no goal.

 

Player ratings

Brad Guzan… 6 – Could do little about the two goals, didn’t have a great deal else to deal with but what he did have to do he did so with little fuss.

Matthew Lowton… 4 – Backed out of tackles (when he actually bothered to make some), switched off for the first goal, improved in the second half especially going forward.

Nathan Baker… 5 – Not very impressive during his brief spell on the pitch, went of injured for a change ;-)

Ron Vlaar… 8 – Fast becoming a fan favourite, just try and stay injury free and we will be ok.

Ciaran Clark… 6 – Pace is an issue, passing is an issue, defending wasn’t too bad helped by being alongside Vlaar.

Antonio Luna… 5 – Never mind Tony Moon, I think Tony Lunatic would be more apt, he goes “walkies” too often with little determination to get back, his crossing is terrible.   Wasn’t too bad today though.

El Ahmadi… 6 – Unlucky not to get on the score sheet, stood off Arsenals midfield and let them have the ball for long periods, he needs to get stuck in!

Fabian Delph… 7 – Mistake for the second goal but still our driving force in midfield, unlucky not to get a goal.

Ashley Westwood… 6 – Mixed bag, some good passing and some bad, needs to get stuck in also.

Gabriel Agbonlahor… 7 – He looks our biggest threat and Lambert is going to need him onside if he is going to keep his job, when Gabby stops running managers are sacked.

Christian Benteke… 6 – I am finding him to be the most frustrating player this season.  Too often loses the ball, it looks like he has been found out – wait for him to trap the ball on his chest then nick it off his feet.  I want the big imposing striker back!

Subs:

Leandro Bacuna… 7 – He needs to start, has he fallen out with Lambert?  One of few players that looks comfortable on the ball in tight spots.

 

Next up

So next up we have Liverpool at Anfield… nice easy one then :-O

Aston Villa vs Arsenal - Match Preview

Team news:

If the early team news is anything to go by then Arsenal will be strengthened by the return of Ozil, the Ox and Giroud, which they hope will offset the loss of Theo Walcott.

More importantly Villa will do everything they can to patch up (not so) "Concrete" Ron Vlaar and insist he tries to last as close to 90 minutes as possible to give us a fighting chance.  Let’s face it with Ron we have something resembling a chance with Laurel and Hardy aka Clarke and Baker at the back we are in trouble.

Likely result:

I am being particularly pessimistic about this one purely because we beat them at the Emirates, and based on our woeful home record and I am going with a 0-3 defeat.

Likely line-up:

            Guzan

Lowton – Vlaar – Clarke - Luna

    Westwood - Delph

Albrighton – Gabby - Weimann
        
            Benteke

My Preferred line-up:

            Guzan

Bacuna - Vlaar - Clarke - Lowton

 Westwood - Delph - El Ahmadi

   Gabby            -      Weimann
        
            Helenius

Quite frankly I have had enough of watching Benteke plod around upfront without any desire so it’s time to stick him on the bench and give Helenius a run out.

Helenius might turn out to be rubbish but if he is willing to chase lost causes and put his head where it might hurt then I say give him a go.  I would like to see both Benteke and Helenius play together but I don’t think Arsenal is the right opponent to try this.  Arsenal will pack the midfield with quality and leave Giroud upfront on his own so we need to try and match them man for man with numbers and effort to make up for our lack of quality.

If nothing else I just hope that we give the Arse a good game and there are a few yellow cards dished out for bad tackles rather than dissent.

UTV and let’s get the 3 points!! Stranger things have happened!