Aston Villa Central » Reviews

Walsall 1 Aston Villa 2

Dan — Tue, 27 Jul 2010 20:52:50 +0000

3,000 Villa fans made it to the Bescot tonight to see a mixed Villa side turn in a comfortable 2-1 victory over Wallsall thanks to a brace from young Andreas Weimann just back from international duty.

As rumoured prior to kick off, Steve Sidwell was included tonight, partnered in the middle by Nigel Reo-Coker wearing the armband, with the side returning to a more familiar 4-4-2, giving the new away kit its first airing.

James Collins lasted all of three minutes before being replaced by Carlos Cuellar, rekindling a centre half partnership with Curtis Davies which I don’t think we’ve seen since the 3-1 victory over Liverpool at Anfield early last season. ~~Hopefully it’s nothing major and just precautionary measure.~~ Update: Collins felt discomfort in his calf and awaits a scan to determine the extent of the injury. He may miss the trip to Portugal.

While Nathan Delfouneso was still packing his bags in France, Andreas Weimann proved he was suffering no hangovers from the European Under 19 Championships, opening the scoring 25 minutes in with a deflected effort.

Eric Lichaj came on for Habib Beye and Shane Lowry took Nicky Shorey’s place for the second half, quite impressive since both started in a friendly against Chasetown last night.

Andreas Weimann made it a night to remember for himself, doubling the lead 20 minutes or so into the 2nd half, following up on Albrighton’s shot which was parried by Walsall keeper Brain.

Immediately after the goal, Ciaran Clark came on for Davies and then the one, the only, the Togolese Zidane himself, Moustapha Salifou came on in place of Reo-Coker. The crowd naturally went wild.

4 minutes later, Jonathon Hogg gave Marc Albrighton a well earned rest after a number of impressive performances again this pre-season and Brad Friedel made way for Elliott Parish.

Walsall grabbed a consolation thanks to substitute Alex Nicholls with his first touch after coming on with 15 minutes left on the clock. Although Walsall applied a little late pressure, there were no further goals.

Job done, nice to get a good win under the belt, now it’s off to Portugal tomorrow. A special mention again for Marc Albrighton and also John Carew who have both won the plaudits for their performances in the last couple of games.

Starting XI: Friedel, Beye, Collins, Davies, Shorey, Albrighton, Reo-Coker, Sidwell, Bannan, Carew, Weimann.
Substitutes: Lowry, Clark, Lichaj, Parish, Hogg, Salifou, Cuellar.

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Goals: Bohemians vs Aston Villa

Dan — Sat, 24 Jul 2010 23:32:39 +0000

The goals and post match interviews from 2-1 loss against Bohemians in Dublin on Saturday.

Once again, kudos to my new friends at extratime.ie who put this video together in good time.

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Bohemians 2 Aston Villa 1

Dan — Sat, 24 Jul 2010 16:13:42 +0000

Aston Villa slumped to an extremely disappointing defeat in Dublin today, losing 2-1 to the Irish Champions, Bohemians, and the lack of any real creativity in the middle will be a real cause for concern. A very bright performance from young winger Marc Albrighton will be scant consolation.

Bohemians opened the scoring in the 20th minute after an uncharacteristic mistake from Brad Friedel, slicing a clearance straight to Conor Powell just outside the box who chipped in.

Villa pressed and controlled much of the first half, but couldn’t find an opening, with Gabby spurning a few chances, although this was his first game of pre-season. Bohs did well on the counter.

Martin O’Neill made three changes after the break; Carew on for Gabby, Cuellar for Clarke and Beye for Lichaj.

Carew had a goal chalked off following a tight offside call on the hour mark after breaking through for a one on one with the keeper and smartly rounding him. Carew continued to be a menace and it was fitting that it was the big man to nod Albrighton’s cross in to level the score five minutes later, Isaiah Osbourne coming on for Reo-Coker in the mean time.

Barry Bannan replaced Stewart Downing for the last 20 minutes and Jonathon Hogg got the final 11 minutes in place of Stiliyan Petrov, but he was on the pitch for just 2 minutes when Bohs retook the lead.

Enzo, a 17 year old trialist from Paris, got the better of Richard Dunne, a quick one-two with Paddy Madden later he was was able to fire past Brad Friedel to score what turned out to be the winning goal. Not a bad way to impress your potential new boss at all. Perhaps Martin O’Neill might give him some consideration.

I’ve never been one to shrug off poor results or performance in friendlies, I won’t start now. Although I didn’t see this game, combined with less than emphatic run outs in the previous two friendlies, there’s clearly lots of work to be done. Bohemians didn’t start their best eleven and even played out a 2-0 win last night.

With Luke Young and Steve Sidwell not part of the travelling party, they clearly won’t be part of that work and, coupled with the apparent lack of creativity, if MON’s revelations regarding James Milner this week were an attempt to spark some transfer activity, it’s easy to understand why.

On the other hand, pre-season went very well last season and we all know how the opening game went.

Click here for a picture gallery at the OS.

Starting XI: Team vs Bohemians: Friedel, Lichaj, Dunne, Clark, Shorey, Albrighton, Petrov, Reo-Coker, Downing, A Young, Agbonlahor.
Subs: Carew, Parish, Bannan, Hogg, Beye, Cuellar, Osbourne.

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Goals: Peterborough vs Aston Villa

Dan — Tue, 20 Jul 2010 12:19:51 +0000

Just in case you missed the goals on Sky Sports, here’s the video while it lasts:-

Ashley’s goal was a bit special, wasn’t it?

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Peterborough 2 Aston Villa 3

Dan — Mon, 19 Jul 2010 20:50:55 +0000

Aston Villa kicked off the pre-season proper with an entertaining 3-2 victory over Peterborough at London Rd tonight, Ashley Young, John Carew and Eric Lichaj getting the goals and all 8 substitutes got some time on the pitch.

Ashley Young opened the scoring inside the opening 10 minutes, but Aaron Davies brought the home side back on terms almost immediately. John Carew restored the briefly held lead just before half time.

Elliot Parish came on in place of Brad Friedel for the second half signalling, perhaps, that he will be the firm number three keeper this season after Andy Marshall’s contract was not renewed.

Eric Lichaj, playing at left back for most of the game, added Villa’s third 8 minutes into the second half, heading in Stewart Downing’s corner at the far post.

Charlie Lee scored the home side’s second goal from distance with a deflected effort that left Parish with little chance.

Starting XI: Friedel, Beye, Collins, Dunne, Lichaj, Petrov, Reo-Coker, Albrighton, Downing, A Young, Carew.
Subs: Lowry, Berry, Bannan, Collins, Forrester, Parish, Hogg, Osbourne.

I kept it deliberately brief tonight, but check back in the morning as I’m hoping to have a match report sent in from a Villa fan at the game and I’ll add it here.

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Basingstoke Town 2 Aston Villa XI 1

Dan — Sun, 18 Jul 2010 15:30:41 +0000

Martin O’Neill saw an Aston Villa side comprised mostly of reserve players, but with a healthy sprinkling of first teamers, kick off the 2010/11 pre-season programme with a loss to Conference side Basingstoke Town at The Camrose this afternoon.

Both of the home side’s goals came in the first half, Chris Herd with an unfortunate own goal in the 34th minute and David Pratt adding a second in the 38th minute. Youngster Graham Burke got one back for Villa 2 minutes into injury time.

This wasn’t a game that I saw any of, so you won’t get an in depth report here, but it’s definitely worth a mention since the line up featured more first team members than I had expected given the game at London Road tomorrow night.

Starting XI: Parish, L Young, Shorey, Cuellar, Davies, Albrighton, Osbourne, Hogg, Forrester, Bannan, Herd.
Substitutes: Lichaj, Siegrist, Clark, Collins Jr, Berry, Deeney, Flanaghan, Halfhuid, Burke, Taylor.

Purple Haze: Carlos Cuellar signs autographs in Basingstoke.

Without any recognised strikers in the starting line up, I believe that Chris Herd was charged with leading the hunt for goals. Mission accomplished in the 34th minute, but sadly at the wrong end.

Basingstoke followed that up four minutes later when the home side’s leading scorer last season, ex-Swindon Supermarine & Chippenham Town striker David Pratt, nodded past Elliott Parish to double the lead. I suppose the bumble-bee goalkeeper kit didn’t put the striker off as hoped.

Carlos Cuellar and Harry Forrester made way for Ciaran Clark and James Collins on the hour mark. That’s James Collins the young striker, not the centre half by the way. Although we continued to press, Collins and Bannan going close, the visitors couldn’t find a goal.

An injury time consolation from Graham Burke, who is unknown to me, might at least provide a future pub quiz question that will likely stump all but the most obsessive of Villa fans. “Q: Who scored the opening goal for Villa in the 2010/11 pre-season. A: Graham Burke.” Perhaps a name to look out for in the future.

A bit disappointing to lose to a non-league outfit given that it wasn’t the weakest side that we could have sent out by a long way. Under the circumstances, that’s a pretty strong back four to be conceding goals to a conference side, but I wouldn’t lose too much sleep over it. We didn’t play a recognised striker for the first hour and I’m sure that if we could have sent Nathan Delfouneso and/or Andreas Weimann out – both of whom will be in action later this afternoon, along with Nathan Baker, in the European Under 19 Championship – we would surely have terrorised the home team. All three of those are in the starting line-ups by the way.

Let’s hope for a better result tomorrow night.

[Photo credit and match details courtesy of the official Aston Villa Twitter account.]

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Statshack – Aston Villa 0 Blackburn 1

Dan — Mon, 10 May 2010 14:37:57 +0000

Keith Andrews hit a shot from a little over 25 yards out on the hour mark that forced Brad Friedel’s only save of the match. It was a fine save, but still reasonably routine that you’d expect most goal keepers at this level to deal with with comfort. That was Blackburn’s only shot on target during the 90 minutes, but they somehow managed to head back up the M6 with three points.

In reality, Hoilett shouldn’t have required the good fortune of Richard Dunne directing the ball into his own net since he’d already gotten the beating of the defender and should have been nodding in himself. It was disappointing error by the Irishman, but it’s the nature of being a defender or goal keeper that mistakes often lead to goals. There’s no question that he’s had a brilliant first season with Villa and though he’ll probably chastise himself, it didn’t affect our final position.

Gabby, I think, said that the result reflected their inability to find an opener during the first half and had they done so it would have allowed them to push on for more. Although he talks about not having luck, he’s probably right, it’s another example of not turning dominance into goals, which has frequently been the case this season.

Other than that, I think the numbers below tell the story of the game admirably, I don’t think there’s much to dwell on. Luke Young came on in place of Stephen Warnock at the end of the first half, so I’ve used Luke in the average position map. If you’re interested, Warnock’s average position was almost identical, just slightly deeper.

To prove the level of dominance; 325 completed passes in this game, we’ve only strung together more in one game this season – 346 at Portsmouth last month. The 70% share of the total completed passes in the match is a record this season by some margin, the next best being 65% during the 0-0 draw at the Britannia Stadium.

These statistics, and Sam Allardyce’s obvious joy at beating us, just add to the evidence that more and more teams fear us and play extremely defensively against us. Additionally, the fact that we’re setting such records in the final game of the season makes it difficult to claim that the team are “tired”, although I would accept that I have to extend the argument of the opposition’s tactics have an influence to this too.

Still, those poor wee tired bodies managed to complete the second highest number of passes and the highest ratio in comparison to our opponent in the final day of the season, not the first.

Paul Robinson also had a pretty good day at the office. That is all.

Aston Villa

May 9th 2010

Blackburn

65%

Possession %

35%

Shots

On Target

Corners

Offsides

Scorers

84′ Dunne (OG)

Dunne, A Young

Booked

Dunn

Sent Off

325

Good Passes

138

70%

CPS %

30%

Bad Passes

80%

Completion %

68%

Interceptions

Tackles Won

Tackles Lost

Blocks

Free Kicks

Starting XI:	1. Friedel	24. Cuellar	25. Warnock
29. Collins	5. Dunne	19. Petrov	8. Milner
7. Young	6. Downing	11. Agbonlahor	10. Carew
Subs:	22. Guzan	14. Delfouneso	4. Sidwell
20. Reo-Coker	2. Young	23. Beye	18. Heskey

Average Position Map

You can find Statshacks from other games here.

[Original data and graphics courtesy of ESPN and The Guardian]

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Aston Villa 0 Blackburn 1 – Sixth Place It Is

Dan — Sun, 09 May 2010 17:36:21 +0000

That’s it then, the curtain has fallen on the 2009/10 Premiership season and it was a disappointing finale for us in fairness, losing 1-0 at home to a Blackburn side who weren’t in the game at all during the first half. In the end, the result didn’t matter as Liverpool were held to a goalless draw in Hull, so we couldn’t be passed for sixth place. City were also held to a 1-1 at West Ham, so a win wouldn’t have lifted us to 5th, but it would have been nice to have at least been level on points.

So sixth it is. 3 seasons on the bounce now, but the record each season has been an improvement on the previous season. This year we finished with 64 points, only 1992/93 was better. The 5 teams ahead of us just did better over 38 games. The top three today were in particularly ruthless mood racking up 16 goals between them, Chelsea with 8 against a 10 man Wigan side and thoroughly deserve the title.

I’m sure no one is particularly interested, but just to cap the season I’ll post a Statshack and more detailed analysis of the game a little later.

Overall, despite some frustrating disappointments here and there, it’s been a marvelous season and I can’t wait to see 2010/11 kick off in August. Thanks to Martin O’Neill and everyone at Villa for continuing the redevelopment for another season and thanks to everyone who stops by Aston Villa Central and helped make the site a success. Here’s to another great year next season!!

UTV

Results And Final Table

Arsenal 4-0 Fulham
Aston Villa 0-1 Blackburn
Bolton 2-1 Birmingham
Burnley 4-2 Tottenham
Chelsea 8-0 Wigan

Everton 1-0 Portsmouth
Hull 0-0 Liverpool
Man Utd 4-0 Stoke
West Ham 1-1 Man City
Wolves 2-1 Sunderland

	Team	Pld	W	D	L	F	A	GD	Pts
1	Chelsea	38	27	5	6	103	32	81	86
2	Man Utd	38	27	4	7	86	28	69	85
3	Arsenal	38	23	6	9	83	41	50	75
4	Tottenham	38	21	7	10	67	41	33	70
5	Man City	38	18	13	7	73	45	34	67
6	Aston Villa	38	17	13	8	52	39	22	64
7	Liverpool	38	18	9	11	61	35	31	63
8	Everton	38	16	13	9	60	49	16	61
9	Birmingham	38	13	11	14	38	47	-4	50
10	Blackburn	38	13	11	14	41	55	-11	50
11	Stoke	38	11	14	13	34	48	-10	47
12	Fulham	38	12	10	16	39	46	-6	46
13	Sunderland	38	11	11	16	48	56	-6	44
14	Bolton	38	10	9	19	42	67	-21	39
15	Wolves	38	9	11	18	32	56	-20	38
16	Wigan	38	9	9	20	37	79	-39	36
17	West Ham	38	8	11	19	47	66	-18	35
18	Burnley	38	8	6	24	42	82	-39	30
19	Hull	38	6	12	20	34	75	-41	30
20	Portsmouth	38	7	7	24	34	66	-30	19

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Reserves Play-Off Final – Man Utd 3 Aston Villa 3 (3:2 Pens)

Dan — Mon, 03 May 2010 16:47:05 +0000

Man Utd Reserves were crowned 2009/10 Premier Reserve League National Champions tonight after what sounded like a thrilling game at Old Trafford, but needed a penalty shoot out to do so after coming from behind 3 times. Ben Foster the hero of the shoot out, saving twice and scoring one himself.

I didn’t see it myself, but followed the updates from various sources online, including the OS and Twitter. I’ve put the teams at the bottom and indicated the number of appearances for the first teams in parentheses (zero indicates being named in a first team squad at least once, but not actually playing). 27 year old Ben Foster, besides 4 England caps (most recently against Brazil in November 2009) also has 73 appearance for Watford. Just saying and yes, I know Marshall isn’t without experience, but he hasn’t been touted as a possibility for the World Cup squad either.

Nathan Delfouneso capped an opening 20 minutes of pressure with the first goal, but Diouf pulled the home team back on terms right before the break.

James Collins (the young striker) came on for Nathan Baker at half time with O’Halloran slotting into the centre and Hofbauer to left back.

Delfouneso retook the lead early in the second half and Utd responded immediately by bringing on Obertan in place of Stewart. Again Utd drew level, this time it was Macheda from the spot after Jonathon Hogg brought down Possebon.

Obertan was forced off with 15 minutes left, Will Keane his replacement. Villa pushed on and scored what must have seemed like the winner inside the final 10 minutes, Clark nodding in Alrbighton’s corner at the back stick.

But once again, despite Villa dominating the closing minutes, Utd were again able to get back on terms with Diouf beating Marshall from close range despite the attention of Ciaran Clark. With no extra time, it went to the dreaded penalty shoot out and with misses from Albrighton and Foster saving Delfouneso and Collin’s efforts, it went to the wire, but finished 3-2 to Utd.

Penalty Shoot Out

	Man Utd	Aston Villa

1	Macheda – Scored	Bannan – Scored
2	Possebon – Scored	Albrighton – Missed
3	Keane – Saved	Weimann – Scored
4	Foster – Scored	Delfouneso – Saved
5	Evans – Saved	Collins – Saved

Teams

Manchester Utd Reserves		Aston Villa Reserves

(13) Ben Foster		Andy Marshall
(16) Rafael		Matthew Roome
Joe Dudgeon		Nathan Baker
(0) Corry Evans		Ciaran Clark (1)
(5) Ritchie De Laet		Stephen O’Halloran
(0) Oliver Gill		Marc Albrighton (6)
(0) Stewart		Barry Bannan
Rodrigo Possebon		Jonathon Hogg
(6) Mame Biram Diouf		Dominic Hofbauer
Oliver Norwood		Andreas Weimann
(9) Frederico Macheda		Nathan Delfouneso (12)

Scott Wooton		Harry Forrester
Ron-Robert Zieler		David Bevan
Paul Pogba		Isaiah Osbourne
(13) Gabriel Obertan		Daniel Bradley
Will Keane		James Collins

I think Man Utd will consider themselves reasonably fortunate to come away with the title, especially considering the respective levels of experience. Thanks to @ManUnitedYouth for the updates from the stadium – he was particularly impressed with Delfouneso, Albrighton, Bannon and Weimann, but we are too!!

The future’s bright, the future is claret and blue!

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Statshack – Man City 3 Aston Villa 1

Dan — Sat, 01 May 2010 23:05:06 +0000

I wouldn’t blame you if you’re not that interested in the stats from this one, it might feel a little anti-climatic now I suppose. Nevertheless, I’ll chuck the usual statistics in and for the “feature stats” I’m going to break our passing down into 10 minute chunks graphically which demonstrates how the game evolved quite nicely I think.

Wingers

One quick point about Downing and Ash; they spent much more time on their natural wings during this game, they usually swap a lot more. This must have been for strategic reasons, but it’s interesting that the goal actually came from Downing cutting in from the right to a position where he could have unleashed a shot with his left foot, but found Carew with the reverse ball instead. You’d think they’d have done that a bit more.

Of course, Downing did spend the last 16 or so minutes more or less as a left back, but Villa were pressing a lot for the equaliser and spent most of that time in City’s half. However, I’m still not sure I see the logic. I know Warnock wasn’t having the best of games, so I understand sacrificing him for Delfouneso, but why not go to a genuine 3-4-3? We had nothing to lose and if we’re going to play three centre halves, we may as well use it to our advantage.

Ah well.

Passing Breakdown

00-09 mins	10-19 mins	20-29 mins

30-39 mins	40-49 mins	50-59 mins

60-69 mins	70-79 mins	80-90 mins

Average Position Map

The lack of wing swapping means that for once numbers 6 & 7 are not placed in the middle of the pitch and you actually see some semblance of our true shape.

As subs, Heskey and Delfouneso are not shown, but young Nathan played high up on the left, with Ash adopting the same role on the right, and Heskey played in the middle, just behind Gabby.

You can also see how Carlos Cuellar was kept busy demonstrating his defensive benefits with James Collins actually getting forward more on average, notably towards the end of the game. Carlos did a fantastic job keeping Craig Bellamy in his pocket for most of the game and, despite the last goal coming through his patch, he’s rightly receiving a lot of shouts for Man of the Match.

Man City

May 1st 2010

Aston Villa

53%

Possession %

47%

Shots

On Target

Corners

Offsides

41′ Tevez (pen), 43′ Adebayor, 89′ Bellamy

Scorers

16′ Carew

Kompany

Booked

Petrov, Collins

Sent Off

322

Good Passes

256

56%

CPS %

44%

Bad Passes

79%

Completion %

80%

Interceptions

Tackles Won

Tackles Lost

Blocks

Free Kicks

Starting XI:	1. Friedel	24. Cuellar	25. Warnock
29. Collins	5. Dunne	19. Petrov	8. Milner
7. Young	6. Downing	11. Agbonlahor	10. Carew
Subs:	22. Guzan	14. Delfouneso	4. Sidwell
20. Reo-Coker	2. Young	23. Beye	18. Heskey

Average Position Map

You can find Statshacks from other games here.

[Original data and graphics courtesy of ESPN and The Guardian]