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And the hits just keep on coming.
Honestly, outside the first 20 minutes or so, I don’t think we were too bad (although I was expecting a little more vibrancy), a bit nervy here and there, but far from being second best. Houllier named an unchanged side, they created chances, they had control of the game for the most part, but made life difficult for themselves with frustrating mistakes.
Emile Heskey was superb in the outfield, bringing exactly what we’ve missed so much for a lot of the season in his link up play, but then somehow conspired to miss an empty net from three yards. He actually hit the cross bar. I don’t know how, but that actually happened. It may have been under his feet somewhat, but any professional footballer should score those with their eyes closed.
And then, in the second half, with Asamoah Gyan slumped on the floor, Villa under no obligation to stop the game on his behalf, we ended up watching the confusion end in a handbags session. Jordan Henderson, all of 20 years old, was furious and confronted Heskey who reacted in the most stupid way possible, he appeared to shove the youngster in the face.
The referee didn’t see it, but the linesman did, and he was dispatched for an early shower. Letter of the law stuff really. Just idiotic from everyone concerned, possibly a sign of the pressure they’re under, perhaps it’s just basic stupidity. Either way, Heskey’s a professional with a long career, Henderson’s over the top reaction may have been all kinds of wrong, but Emile knows better.
The home side clearly rocked, it didn’t take too much pressure from Sunderland until Phil Bardley’s found the ball at his feet and hit a speculative drive from 30 odd yards. Of course, the ball made its way through a crowded box and nestled in the bottom corner. Of course it did.
Boudewijn Zenden was sent off with four minutes left on the clock for a second bookable offence, Houllier made his first substitution two minutes later when Petrov and Reo-Coker were replaced by Albrighton and Bannan. The ball constantly pumped forward by a quarter back Ashley Young on the half way line, Brad Friedel even going up for a late corner.
No late salvation was found though and with many other games going against us tonight; Wolves victory over Chelsea taking the shine off our 3-3 draw somewhat, we’re now in the relegation zone for the first time since a six day dip back in November 2003.
And there we are. The “must win” game wasn’t won, it wasn’t even drawn. So now what?
Well, if there was panic before, there’s outright pandemonium among large sections of the fan base now. Houllier seemed to ask his escort what the crowd were singing as he headed up the touch line to the tunnel.
“Um, they say you’re getting sacked in the morning, Mr Houllier“.
The manager looked shell shocked, I’ve a good idea how he feels.
If he is despatched in the next 24 hours, given some of the other games tonight, he might not be alone. I’m not sure he will be; the support shown by Randy and Paul seemed pretty unequivocal to me, and I still don’t really believe he should be, but anything seems possible right now.
On a side note: can we get together some kind of campaign to raise awareness of what players should do when a player lies prone? It’s really simple, you play to the referee’s whistle, it’s his responsibility to decide when the game should be stopped.
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25 Comments to “Aston Villa 0 Sunderland 1: insert pithy observation here”
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I remember not that long ago being really bummed that we were in 10th place. I would give anything for that now …
I missed the 2nd half because I had to pick up the kid – looks like I missed all the “excitement”.
aye, some mid table mediocrity would seem pretty decent right now.
And Houllier will leave Aston Villa when?
i wouldn’t go holding your breath, randy’s bought into his long term vision, he won’t sack him lightly.
Maybe for a promotional video, instead of Milner and Young hitting bins from fifty yards away, AVFC could make one of Heskey hitting crossbars from three yards away.
I wouldn’t presume to know the tactical answers, but it was interesting that the ESPN announcer spent the first half hectoring Houiller for playing Agbonlahor and Young in the wrong positions. He really couldn’t let that go, and he presumably was not even a Villa fan.
i’m pretty certain that was steve claridge, stewart. they’re not ESPN guys, it’s just the audio on the international feed.
short version; he’s a first class idiot. he also thought houllier was eating humble pie by bringing back the senior players, thereby admitting his experiment with the youngsters failed.
our injury situation seems to have passed him by.
Thanks for the background. I probably don’t need the long version. Yes, I think any strategic evaluation has to start with the recognition that the “youth movement” was primarily about finding eleven healthy bodies on a given day.
The BBC have just said that a senior source has confimed GH has the club’s backing and there is no timeframe for him to turn it round.
I’d suggest that’s not your usual “vote of confidence” thing, either.
So that’s that then
As for the game, I agree with your assessment Dan.
I actually had Emule down as my provisional MOTM until he lost his head. I thought NRC did well too.
And yes, I really thought it could have gone either way.
But once we were down to ten men, you could only see one result coming.
What I now find surprising is that we haven’t done any deals yet.
I know it’s early days in the window, but any new players are going to take weeks to bed in and we need them sooner rather than later.
Especially if you take my view that I don’t think we’ve got what it takes to turn it round.
Could it possibly be that we aren’t going to spend much in the window?
I know it’s a bad time to buy, but anyone can see we need surgery in the most important places.
If the hierarchy think we’ll be able to get away with some of the mediocrity and kids on loan types that have been mentioned, well, best of luck to them.
What does relegation cost a club these days?
Another worrying thing is that I wasn’t fuming last night and took it pretty well in my stride.
I think I’m resigned to the inevitable
after i wrote this, i recalled emile’s other three yard miss, where he nutmegged himself, also against sunderland and something that could well have changed the game had he scored.
GM fielded reporters on tuesday and pressed on transfers he would only say that GH is working with agents 24/7, GH himself wouldn’t discuss it when asked on monday.
it sounds very much like kyle walker will be first through the door on loan until the end of the season. luke young’s knee injury is apparently pretty serious, at his age, i’m not sure he’ll be back & beye is obviously toast.
don’t know what i think about that just yet. haven’t really seen him play, he’s 18 months younger than lichaj, but a little more experienced with time playing at sheffield utd and QPR under his belt.
if it doesn’t turn into a perm deal, then we’re just helping tottenham. if it does, then what does that say for lichaj?
Dan / Badger,
I’m also looking for early signings but I can’t get over the fact that this is basically the same team that did so well last year (minus Milner). Is it the players, the formation/selection or what? I can accept that the loss of Milner plus some injuries means that Europe is out of the question but I would not have anticipated a relegation fight.
With that said, I think we have enough to stay up if the team can just play together for 90 minutes. I’m afraid that the pressure is wearing on the players as evidenced by Heskey’s unusual momentary loss of sanity.
Finally, my guess is that GH is having a hard time convincing players to come to AV with the relegation fight. The win at Chelsea probably helped but the loss to Sunderland likely turned a few away. Who wants to go to a team that is about to be relegated?
not sure if i wrote it here or twitter – post-game is hazy now – but i asked whether heskey’s reaction is a symptom of the pressure, but then i recalled his red card during the peace cup in the game against porto.
he absolutely flipped, i’ve never seen him lose it like that before, and i don’t think we can put some poxy pre-season tournament in the pressure cooker category.
i’m not sure about the signings, january is rarely anything exciting, even in our position. GM said that he doesn’t think we need much, the quality is there, i certainly agree, so it’s just a question of finding the right additions and replacements for any dead wood cut loose.
it’s a problem getting rid though. sidwell had an offer from west brom in august, turned it down. was practically signed for west ham yesterday – i’m still sitting on the post – and now looks like he could be heading for wolves.
why? money baby, these guys won’t go easily, they’re too well paid at villa.
“why? money baby, these guys won’t go easily, they’re too well paid at villa”
Death spiral…
“but I can’t get over the fact that this is basically the same team that did so well last year (minus Milner)”
Nor can I Idaho.
Although it was plain that Milner was a sort of glue for us, he never made the team complete on his own.
I totally refuse to believe a set of players who can attain 6th suddenly become rubbish in a few months.
As for what’s gone wrong, god knows.
Injuries, bad form, failing to take chances, players falling out, not believing in the staff, it’s everything.
But basically, I think it’s a poor manager and coach, as simple as that.
Not that it makes much difference now that the club have backed him.
I’m doing some very rough sums in my head, but not sure about the figures, but it wouldn’t surprise me if the drop costs us about £80mill, when you tot up the PL money, the wages of players we can’t get rid of, smaller crowds and merchandise streams and the loss in transfer fees.
Wow, that’s scarey.
This season Villa are re-enacting the Mellberg/Enckelman Own Goal from 2002, its looking grim friends!
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mLawwFbGWS0
urgh! i hate watching that… not just because of what it was, but because of what it *wasn’t*.
i was screaming it wasn’t a goal at the time, enckelman didn’t touch it, too bad he didn’t know the rules, the ref didn’t see it, but his reaction sold it.
that said, ref may have given it anyway.
We will be relegated.
Come on Nan, you’re better than that simplistic answer.
Explanation as to why please.
no we won’t :p
I am betting against relegation, because we only need to outplay three of six clubs (Fulham, Birmingham, WBA, Wolverhampton, Wigan and West Ham, the rest of the way. Statistically, this seems very likely.
I am still assuming the performance against Chelsea was closer to the norm than that against Sutherland…
Stewart – I’m with you but I’d feel better about seeing the Sunderland defeat as an outlier if there wasn’t the Liverpool game to consider
And then there is the Manchester City game. But on the other hand, the draw with Manchester United… Hard to know what the outliers are. But as much as Milner is missed, I would consider all of last year, and Dunne is starting to look better (I disagree with Nan; I don’t see him leaving). WIth Young, Agbonlahor, Reo-Coker, Petrov,and even Heskey, healthy, based on what they have done historically,there is no reason they cannot play mediocre ball the rest of the year (avoiding the occasional head butt) and finish a robust 15th.
Last season we were all upset about 6th again, at the start of the season I expected 8th to 10th, now if I’m offered 15th I’d take it…sigh…
1. We will lose players during the window. Dunne had to put in a couple of grunt games so that desperate clubs would part with cash. Young will go somewhere.
2. GH will be given some cash. He will buy the junk that you get with some cash in Jan. They will further upset a fractured dressing room.
3. GH will be trusted until it is too late.
4. GH is tactically inept.
5. The young talent are pretty footballers. Pretty footballers are no use in a scrap to the death.
6. Fate is punishing us at every opportunity.
7. Our crowds are dwindling, the support is demoralised and chants for sackings is hardly likely to help home results.
8. We are certain to concede at least one goal every game and are playing without a goal scorer.
9. Most importantly, we just look terribly, terribly fragile.
We will be relegated. Yes we can.
i heard this first from billy connolly…
a documentary film crew are in the serengeti filming lions chewing on a kill. the biggest lion, the leader of the pride, looks over at the cameraman and sound guy and lets out a menacing roar.
the sound guy places a hand on the cameraman’s shoulder to balance himself and starts changing his sandals for running shoes.
the camera looks down and says “you’ll never out run a lion in those”
“i don’t have to out run the lion,” said the sound guy, “i only have to out run you”.
we don’t have to be better than everyone else, only three teams. as stewart says above, that seems more likely to me than not.
A very lucid illustration of the point. The lion on the team crest takes on new meaning.