Preface
You know you’re in trouble when a blog post carries a preface! This post is hefty by blog standards, even mine, and it is statistically and graphically rich, but that’s not the reason for this quick heads up. That said, don’t start reading expecting a quick 300 word blog!
I had most of the data here at hand and this is a post that I’ve been meaning to pull together for some time. However, I’ll be perfectly straightforward and
I’m extremely excited to have the scoop on this, although I should admit it’s through a friend connected to the sponsor rather than any inside information from Villa Park.
I’ve just got off the phone with my friend in San Francisco (yes, it’s just after 5am there right now, she’s not overly happy with my guerrilla tactics) and she confirmed to me that her employers are in advanced negotiations with Randy Lerner to put their name on the front of Aston
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.
Here’s the news that’s caught my eye in the last couple of days.
Martin O’Neill Rumour
I didn’t plan on touching this as it’s just some silliness from a forum. However, it was repeated by a couple of blogs for reasons best known to the bloggers in question and now the bastion of journalism that is The Daily Mirror are reporting that Martin O’Neill has quit. Martin O’Neill is now a trending topic on Twitter in the UK.
I’ll stick my neck
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
7-1. Seven – One. Wow, that’s the worst beating I’ve ever seen Aston Villa take. We conceded 5 in the Premiership just 5 times before. If you go back to the pre-Premiership days, there were a couple of games in which we conceded 6 in the last few decades, but the last time we shipped 7? October 1964, Old Trafford.
Yesterday was actually the 9th time that we’ve conceded 7 away from home in the league, we’ve never