Tactical analysis seems almost pointless, if ever there was a display based on mental qualities such as determination, commitment and spirit, this was it. The stats will speak for themselves, so I’ll just throw in a couple of factoids, tug my forelock and bid you good day.

Firstly, Stewart Downing. Not the best use of the ball when he saw it, but he struggled to get involved in the game. For once his central position in the average position map is more a reflection of where the action was instead of him playing roughly equal time on each wing. Villa focused 55% of their attacks down the right, Everton 41% down their left. With Downing spending most of the time on the left, he didn’t see much of the ball.

Secondly, Villa had very little possession in general, just 32%. That led to completing just 139 passes, which was 27% of the total passes completed in the match. That’s the least number of passes Villa have made in a Premiership match since the same number were completed during the 3-2 loss to Utd at Old Trafford. And the 27% CPS was the lowest since the 26% during the 1-0 win over Utd last season.

Passing stats alone don’t mean much, I’m always the first to say so, but all these stats together paint the picture of an uninspiring performance at home against a team we’ll be competing for position against for the rest of the season.

We took the points today and hopefully that restores some much needed confidence in the team. We’ve beaten Utd, Chelsea and Arsenal in the past with similarly slender shares of the game, but with all due respect to Everton, that’s far more acceptable and expected.

Make of it what you will, but that was great result from a poor performance today.

1	Aston Villa	August 29th 2010	Everton	0
	32%	Possession %	68%
	15	Shots	23
	5	On Target	6
	4	Corners	18
	1	Offsides	0
9′ L Young		Scorers
Dunne, Collins, Albrighton, Petrov		Booked
		Sent Off
	139	Good Passes	372
	27%	CPS %	73%
	63	Bad Passes	86
	69%	Completion %	81%
	20	Interceptions	7
	32	Tackles Won	29
	26	Tackles Lost	27
	55%	Success %	52%
	9	Blocks	6
	10	Free Kicks	21
Starting XI: 1. Friedel 2. Young 3. Warnock 29. Collins 5. Dunne 19. Petrov 20. Reo-Coker 14. Albrighton 6. Downing 7. Young 10. Carew Subs: 18. Heskey 11. Agbonlahor 22. Guzan 23. Beye 44. Lichaj 46. Bannan 14. Delfouneso
Average Position Maps

You can find Statshacks from other games here.

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