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Don’t look now, but I think our season may well be back on track after a hard won three points in Wigan thanks to goals from Gabby Agbonlahor and Ashley Young from the spot, despite James McCarthy’s deflected effort setting up the usual nervous final 10 minutes.
Jean Makoun made his Aston Villa debut and Nathan Baker made a surprising Premier League debut in place of the injured Ciaran Clark at left back, both giving a very good account of themselves. Baker was calm and assured, barely putting a foot wrong, although the referee might have looked twice at an early tug in the box.
Makoun looks the genuine article in the middle, his positioning and first touch clearly a sign of what we’ve been missing in that part of the pitch. He’ll take some time to settle in and those around him will need to adapt to his speed of though; he looks to move the ball on quickly and let it do the work, but his 57 minutes on the pitch were very encouraging, despite a cheap booking half way through.
The first half started extremely brightly, but wastefulness in the final third allowed Wigan to get a foothold in the game and the home side were in the ascendancy when the break came. Stewart Downing, in particular, didn’t really seem to be at the races on the right hand side while Gabby wasn’t exactly leading the way on the opposite flank.
There seemed a little more spirit after Houllier had chance to reorganise, Downing and Gabby possibly encouraged to tuck in more and Ash to run a higher line, but Downing’s game improved markedly.
The goal, when it came in the 50th minute, had a touch of good fortune about it. Carlos Cuellar’s powerful header from a corner was initially brilliantly saved by Al Habsi in the Wigan goal, only for the ball to loop nicely for Gabby to nod in from no more than a yard out.
It was Gabby’s first league goal of the season and he seemed rather pleased with it, as did the rest of the team. I don’t care how they go in, they all count, more of the same please Gab.
Barely 10 minutes later, Ash was taken down in the box by a rash tackle from Hendry Thomas, who he’d been tussling with all game, and referee John Moss wasted no time pointing to the spot. Ash finished it himself, powering straight down the middle.
Houllier had introduced Petrov in place of Makoun just minutes before, the Bulgarian brought in to provide a little more attacking intent in middle. Gabby made way for Marc Albrighton on 77′ which allowed Downing to switch to the left.
Wigan piled on some pressure and it seemed almost inevitable that Villa would not be able to register the first back to back clean sheets of the season. McCarthy’s drive from distance took a wicked deflection off James Collins, but it was invited by the central midfield pair getting pegged back practically on top of the back line.
In fairness, it’s amazing it didn’t happen against City. It did happen today, but at least they did cling on to grab the first back to back victories in the league this season, if not consecutive clean sheets.
The £24m man didn’t get on the score sheet today, but he did get on the end of some early chances and generally played well in tandem with Ashley Young in what was for all intents and purposes a 4-4-2 for much of this one, although there were arguably 4-3-3 sympathies in bursts during the second period.
It’s still about seeing progress rather than the finished article. It wasn’t always pretty and much of the difficulties were of their own making, but there were lots of nice moments and the spirit that’s frequently enough to win games seems to have returned. When they do finally click, and they will, the attacking players; Gabby, Ash, Bent, Downing, Albrighton, and others, will give defenders nightmares.
More importantly right now though, we’re up to 13th in the league, fully six points ahead of 18th place Wigan, but somehow just three points behind Blackburn in 7th place if you can believe such a thing. Maybe, just maybe…
…no, one game at a time!
Next up, in the league anyway, is a trip to Old Trafford to play a Man Utd side who came back from two goals behind in Blackpool to win 3-2; only the 2nd side after Tottenham this season to take three points from being 2-0 down.
Before we can get to that one though, Blackburn come to Villa Park next Saturday in the 4th round of the FA Cup. Maybe, just maybe…
…no, let’s just enjoy this one for now. Six points in two games, a point more than this side achieved in the preceding nine league games. There’s definitely some progress going on and I believe I even heard the away fans singing Houllier’s name tonight.
Long may it continue.
Aston Villa Starting XI: Friedel, Cuellar, Dunne, Collins, Baker, Downing, Reo-Coker, Makoun, Agbonlahor, Young, Bent. Subs: Marshall, Heskey, Herd, Petrov, Albrighton, Delfouneso, Pires.
Wigan Starting XI: Al Habsi, Boyce, Gohouri, Figueroa, Caldwell, Zogbia, McArthur, McCarthy, Thomas, Rodallega, Di Santo Subs: Watson, McManaman, Gómez, Diame, Pollitt, Stam, Moses.
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6 Comments to “Wigan 1 Aston Villa 2: Two debuts and three points”
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encouraging to see the lads gaining in confidence, Makoun will be big for us I think, great vision, great passes and pace. Looked to be distributing wide too, maybe some solid link-up play between our back line and the attack?
relegation zone is fading fast, and soon Holloway will be eating his words about boasting how well Blackpool seemed to be over Villa (hoping)
I am happy to see the confidence in the team but why do we ALWAYS seem to revert to a bunker mentality. We were under the kosh for very long stretches in the game – not just the final 10 minutes.
On the plus side, I think we continue to blood new talent – while Baker didn’t impress me much, he didn’t look bad either. Herd also got a run-out. Albrighton started on the bench but came on when Gabby didn’t seem to be making headway. This is how to bring along the young kids and use your full squad!
On the negative side, I could really see the lack of technical ability in the squad. Gabby looks like a bit of a forced fit as a winger (pace but he can’t seem to open enough space to get a cross into the box). Reo-Coker was just poor in my opinion. He did a shift but he had errant passes, was slow to close-down players and in general looked out of his depth at times.
Assuming we don’t get in another player, our midfield will be “interesting” for the rest of the season as we try to figure out who plays best together. Fortunately, it looks like the old MON defence is back and working together again!
Just re-read my post.
Don’t get me wrong — I’m thrilled with the performance and the improvement! I’m happy to be able to nit-pick performances rather than just give a blanket statement about how terrible the entire team was!
Great result. Clearly, many positives.
However, I think Makoun defensively could be a problem. Gabby still looks lost out there. Most worryingly, in tight situations, our touch and control in midfield is poor. All Wigan players looked far more comfortable on the ball. They were able to work triangles through the middle, whereas our midfield would receive the ball with their back to the opposition and we all know where it’s gonna go then……back to Collins or Cuellar and…….HOOFPUNT.
I noticed the passing as well Nan. Wigan really looked technically more proficient – just lacking a cutting edge. Our movement of the ball was slow and quite a few times we ended up passing all the way back to our own end after having penetrated into the final third.
Makoun seemed good on the ball to me but I’m not sure he is the answer all by himself. It looked like we lack a confident ball-control mid-fielder — one who is comfortable just holding on to the ball and slowing the game down. We are still in counter-attack mode right now. We are either going forward with pace or going backward to find an open man. This vertical play generates a lot of chances but we really don’t “eat up the clock” (as they say in American Football) through possession and therefore leave us defending for long stretches.
Spot on.