In part one we looked at a graphical representation of four Aston Villa managers accumulating points in the Premiership over the course of their first 114 games at Aston Villa – roughly a 3 year period. John Gregory was in first place with 174 points, Martin O’Neill and Brian Little were tied on 172 points and David O’Leary was predictably bringing up the rear with 145 points.
We’re now going to look at the data behind the chart to compare
Some time ago I decided to take a statistical look at Martin O’Neill’s first 100 league games for no other reason than it was an interesting milestone. The first table in that post showed MON’s first 100 games up against the record of the other manager’s first 100 games – well, almost in Ron Atkinson’s case. The second table puts that same 100 game record against other manager’s career league records at Villa. (Premiership only).
Interestingly, there’s a little
I’m starting to think that losing the opening game against Wigan will turn out to be a good thing, if given time. Whether the Peace Cup could be dismissed as just pre-season or not, we were on a high from picking up a trophy and arguably “discovering” some hidden gems among our reserves.
Wigan was definitely a wake up call. The players lost their day off and were dragged in for training yesterday. No one at the club
I waited many hours after the game to write this so it wouldn’t get bogged down in negativity. I’ve just been reading the 1,100 words I’ve written and decided to start again. I failed to keep the negativity under control. I’ve yet to complete part two of my season expectations and I don’t want this one game to change my outlook. It shouldn’t either, one game does not make a season.
Let’s keep it simple. We lost
It was only April that I took the opportunity to jump on some of John Carew’s words about how he’s finding his time at Aston Villa. Why? To recap briefly; October 23rd ’08, Villa beat Ajax 2-1 in the UEFA Cup at Villa Park and Carew was surprisingly left out of the squad. Martin O’Neill was questioned about this during a press conference the following day and he said that Carew had been complaining of tiredness, was
I generally try to find some positives even in defeat. Right now, I’m struggling, I really am. That was completely inept today.
I avoid criticizing the manager, Martin O’Neill has forgotten more than I know about football, but when I saw Petrov and Delph on the starting team sheet I was concerned. Petrov hasn’t played since dislocating his shoulder in Spain. Delph is a 19 year old from League One.
I’ll do a full review later. For
When new manager Roberto Matinez was recently placed in charge of the Lactics he was returning to the club that he had spent 6 years at as a player. Before coming back to Wigan, he spent a couple of seasons managing Swansea, another club he spent a few years at as a player, and by all accounts he did a bang up job. He lead Swansea to the League One Title and picked up Manager of the Season
Knowing that the Aston Villa Academy lads had won some seven-a-side tournament in Hong Kong the last couple of years, I was curious about whether they were defending their title this year. In all honesty, it was something I forgot to check up on.
Worry not, today the OS brought us the sad news that the young lions were beaten by Rangers in the semi-finals of this year’s competition. My curiosity re-ignited, I went in search of more information.
Who?!? Relax, he’s 34, was available on a free and is obviously just filling the third choice goal keeper shirt vacated by Stuart Taylor. He has been signed on a one year contract.
Evidently Elliott Parish hasn’t inspired enough confidence should the two Brads become simultaneously unavailable. Marshall has played for Norwich, Ipswich, Millwall and Coventry.
With all due respect, and in the nicest possible way, I hope we don’t have to see you on the pitch, Andy.