We’ve played 36 games. We have two left; Man City at Eastlands and Blackburn at Villa Park. We have 64 points. Regardless of what happens in those two games, this season will be the second best performance in 18 years of the Premier League. Only 1992/93, the very first EPL season, was better.
And some people believe that Martin O’Neill has taken us as far as he can? Really?
One thing to consider is that there were
That’s how many Premiership games that Martin O’Neill has prowled the Aston Villa technical area “like a panther”. The significance? Oh, it’s the same number as John Gregory, which means that MON will effectively become our longest serving manager during the Premiership era when he takes charge of his 149th EPL game at Hull on Wednesday.
It seems a good time to update what is a loose series of posts analysing the current manager’s league performance in comparison with
Here’s what has been catching my eye in the last couple of days.
Little Impressed
One of our better managers during the Premiership years, an ex-player himself, Brian Little says that he’s impressed at Villa resurgence over the last few years and happy that we’re back in the mix among the top teams in the table. [Sporting Life]
He’s Not The Messiah
Gabriele Marcotti, who is a competent, but not outstanding writer, makes the case that MON is a competent, but not outstanding manager.
Please.
Please.
Support your team.
Thank You.
I know I should let it go, but inspired by the rarity of the recent 7-1 scoreline, I found myself wondering what scorelines we Villa fans have been treated to most frequently. Here’s a couple of highlights among the findings:-
Our five most popular scorelines:-
Premiership to Date
Under MON
1-1
13.93%
1-1
15.04%
0-0
10.89%
0-0
11.28%
1-0
9.72%
2-1
9.77%
2-1
9.00%
2-0
8.27%
0-1
8.71%
1-0
8.27%
Maybe the increase in scoreless and 1-1 draws doesn’t surprise you, but there aren’t any losses among the top 5 under Martin O’Neill. Nice to see the 2-0 and 2-1’s ahead of
There’s one period in our recent history that I refer to frequently, so I thought I’d recount it in more detail and then I can put it to bed. Or just link to it!
So if you’re sitting comfortably, I shall begin…
Our tale begins in late March 2008, it had been an extremely poor month for Aston Villa and we still had to go to Old Trafford to play an on form Man Utd side spearheaded by Rooney and Tevez,
It’s not easy to simply forget about that horrendous result at the weekend and move on, especially as a fresh wave of headlines roll in this Monday, but that’s pretty much what we have to do. Conceding 7 goals for the first time in 46 years during a season in which we were able to boast the meanest defence in the league is clearly a complete aberration, there’s no credible argument to the contrary. That doesn’t make it
There can’t be too many people close to Martin O’Neill’s innermost thoughts. In fact, there may be a few who wonder whether he is close to his innermost thoughts sometimes, but I couldn’t possibly comment. I’m certainly not among the inner sanctum so it’s idle speculation on my part here, but is it possible that MON’s transfer dealings to date reveal a tactician who is actually ahead of the curve? Wait, hear me out here!
MON’s activity in
Well done to the Birmingham Mail for another piece of awesome journalism, the Pulitzer is surely just a matter of time. They’ve taken the following quote from Martin O’Neill:-
Expectation levels I expect to go up because it is Aston Villa, then you are hoping you can make something happen for the supporters. However, like everybody else, you have to earn this and it is not a case of just because a club has been successful in the past