It’s not so much a cliché as a truism: goals change games. Sometimes not scoring does too. Had Downing’s early woodwork striking effort gone in and/or had we been awarded a penalty for the challenge on Reo-Coker shortly after, it might have been a different game.

The goal we conceded, when we conceded it and in the manner it was given away clearly took some of the wind out of our sails in a much more traditional sense. Of course it did, we handed Sunderland a head start.

The real reason I focused on the goals, or the lack thereof, as being a key factor in this one is because I was looking back at the Statshack and early match report for this fixture last season where we won with a much smaller share of the game than the stats suggest we had in this one. It goes like that sometimes, but, if you’ll indulge me, I’m going to quote myself from the 2nd paragraph of the Statshack post:-

As far as the numbers go, well you can see for yourself. Had we not scored more goals than Sunderland and, therefore, won the game, might this be evidence of our shortcomings for any of the overly vocal detractors floating around the interwebz? No matter, we won and we looked scarily good during moments of this game. Scarily good. Do you think Stoke will fancy coming to Villa Park on Saturday?

I added a little emphasis to the part about looking “scarily good” since, if you listen to some people, you’d think we’ve just woken up and started playing good football after years of playing badly. I won’t dwell on the obvious point of results over entertainment, but I will point out that this is our worst points haul from our opening nine games since 2005/06, DOL’s final season.

But just sticking with the game at the Stadium of Light last season for a moment, it was around that time that Milner was moved into the middle to accommodate Stewart Downing into the team and it was Milner who was the main reason for that win.

It was Milner’s brilliant through ball to Emile Heskey that the big striker just needed to help on its way to goal in the 24th minute and it was Milner who robbed Sunderland of the ball from their own throw in during the 2nd half and scampered off before dispatching the ball into the top corner to make it 2-0 and game over.

On that basis, there’s very little point analyzing today’s game from a tactical point of view, there was nothing wrong with the way Houllier set his team out and you can argue about individual selection as much as you like, but without someone like Milner in the middle, grabbing the game by the scruff of the neck and making things happen, it’s anyone’s game.

Today, Sunderland won, but as you’ll see from the numbers below, we deserved a point, a win wouldn’t have been out of order either, but you don’t win games without scoring goals.

To that end, of course a real predatory striker would be useful, Gabby’s speed may have injected a different dynamic into this game, but even the best strikers in the world really need some creative force in the middle of the park. They also tend to score the simple tap-ins when they’re presented.

Average Position Map

Sidwell replaced Petrov in the 40th minute so is shown in the average position map instead. If you’re interested, Stan’s average position was nearly identical to Reo-Coker.

We played a 4-2-3-1 up until Marc Albrighton came on for Stephen Ireland in the second half and Ash was moved into the centre; more of a 4-4-1-1.

Sunderland also played an interesting 4-2-3-1 system with Cattermole and Henderson as the central anchors, Danny Wellbeck and the impressive Al Muhammadi (Elmohamady) the wide men sandwiching Steed Malbranque behind Darren Bent.

Jordan Henderson’s penchant for getting forward and Malbranque’s near free role made Sunderland’s system often times look like something better described as 4-5-1, Cattermole the lone holding player.

1	Sunderland	October 23rd 2010	Aston Villa	0
	48%	Possession %	52%
	14	Shots	13
	1	On Target	3
	4	Corners	11
	5	Offsides	2
Dunne (OG) 25′		Scorers
Bardsley		Booked	Heskey, Warnock
		Sent Off
	189	Good Passes	211
	47%	CPS %	53%
	68	Bad Passes	70
	74%	Completion %	75%
	10	Interceptions	20
	39	Tackles Won	42
	38	Tackles Lost	36
	51%	Success %	54%
	5	Blocks	4
	14	Free Kicks	17
Sunderland 22 Simon Mignolet 15 Nedum Onuoha 2 Phillip Bardsley 4 Michael Turner 19 Titus Bramble 6 Lee Cattermole 10 Jordan Henderson 8 Steed Malbranque (Off 82′) 17 Danny Welbeck (Off 66′) 27 Ahmed Al Muhammadi (Off 90′) 11 Darren Bent Subs 1 Craig Gordon 33 Asamoah Gyan(On 66′) 16 Cristian Riveros 5 John Mensah (On 82′) 14 Paulo Da Silva 29 Anton Ferdinand 7 Boudewijn Zenden (On 90′) Aston Villa 1 Brad Friedel 5 Richard Dunne 29 James Collins 23 Habib Beye 3 Stephen Warnock 7 Ashley Young 6 Stewart Downing 9 Stephen Ireland (Off 55′) 19 Stiliyan Petrov (Off 40′) 20 Nigel Reo-Coker 18 Emile Heskey Subs 4 Steve Sidwell (On 40′) 10 John Carew 12 Marc Albrighton (On 55′) 21 Ciaran Clark 22 Brad Guzan 24 Carlos Cuellar 25 Barry Bannan
Average Position Maps

You can find Statshacks from other games here.

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