Since the analysis of Gabby’s goal at Blackpool was well received, I thought I’d repeat the task for the goals against Blackburn yesterday. This time the solid orange lines represent player movements without the ball, the dashed orange lines indicate movement with the ball (dribbling) and the blue lines show the path of the ball between players (passes).
Goal One: Build up to the penalty
With the opening goal coming from the spot, there’s obviously nothing to look at with the goal
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There were no signs of rust today as Villa returned from the two week absence and put in a confident, dominant performance to beat Blackburn 4-1 with two goals from Ashley Young – one from the spot – Stewart Downing and a Grant Hanley own goal, turning Marc Albrighton‘s low shot/cross into his own net.
All five goals came in the second half, Nikola Kalinic grabbing a late consolation with nine minutes left – possibly receiving a fortuitous deflection sending the
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This is how today’s lone Villa goal came about at Bloomfield Road:
Blackpool were in possession and launching an attack through the centre of the pitch with Ash and Makoun tracking back, Reo-Coker in a holding position in front of the back four.
Makoun makes a sliding tackle, winning possession back and cleverly plays a sort of “roundhouse” style back heeled pass into Reo-Coker’s path while he was still on the ground.
Reo-Coker plays a first time ball up to Darren Bent who
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It finished a point apiece at Bloomfield Road after neither side were able to improve on early goals from Gabby Agbonlahor and Eliot Grandin in a frenetic game that saw Jean II Makoun receive a straight red card for a two footed tackle with 20 minutes left to play.
It was a game that kicked off with a vibrant pace, both sides creating early chances, but it was Gabby Agbonlahor who opened the scoring with a superb run from the left,
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It was honours even at Villa Park after a frustrating performance led to points being dropped for the second time against Fulham this season. An own goal from John Pantsil and a superb goal from Kyle Walker were both cancelled out by goals from Andrew Johnson and Clint Dempsey. Brad Friedel won’t want to watch the replays.
It started extremely promisingly, some exceptionally fluid play from Villa at times, Jean Makoun at the heart of much that was positive. An early
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Brad Friedel became Aston Villa’s oldest ever player tonight, but you would never have known it as he pulled out a number of superb saves to prevent a much harsher scoreline than the 3-1 this one finished.
Wayne Rooney signalled a timely return to form with two very well taken goals in open play in the first and last minutes of the first half. Darren Bent got one back for Villa only for any hopes of a comeback to be
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Houllier’s much rotated side ensured their place in the draw for the 5th round of the FA Cup thanks to goals from Ciaran Clark, Robert Pires and Nathan Delfouneso, but were forced to see out just under 30 minutes with 10 men after Nathan Baker was shown a straight red card for a dangerous tackle on David Hoilett.
If you weren’t at Villa Park, you didn’t see this game live, and that includes me, so I’ll just briefly describe what I
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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.
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It could hardly have been better scripted; Darren Bent silenced his critics with a clinical poacher’s goal 18 minutes into his Aston Villa debut before a 2nd half of sometimes desperate defending kept Man City at bay. It was Villa’s first league win of 2011 and sets up the opportunity to record back to back wins for the first time this season with the visit to Wigan on Tuesday.
Gerard Houllier signalled his intentions with what looked like a very attacking
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