The Villa Fiver: Games 6 to 15
After being six points up on corresponding fixtures last season after the first five games of the season, the bright start that saw three wins in the first four fixtures (including an Anfield away win), then flipped to six losses on the trot. Those six losses included five games against the top six teams of last season, who Villa had faired well against, so how would that affect their initial improvement on last season?
We missed doing a Villa Fiver for games 6-10, so those games are combined here below.
After the losing 3-0 to Arsenal in the fifth game of the season, Villa went a further four games without scoring a goal, before the improved performance against Spurs (with the red card compromising the result) was the turning point for better fortunes for the claret and blue.
(Last season’s results in brackets)
Chelsea (a) L 0-3 (L 1-2)
Man City (h) L 0-2 (W 3-2)
Everton (a) L 0-3 (L 1-2)
QPR (a) L 0-2 (Cardiff D 0-0)
Spurs (h) L 1-2 (L 0-2)
West Ham (a) D 0-0 (D 0-0)
Southampton (h) D 1-1 (D 0-0)
Burnley (a) D 1-1 (Fulham L 0-2)
Crystal Palace (a) W 1-0 (L 0-1)
Leicester (h) W 2-1 (Norwich W 4-1)
Points difference compared to fixtures last season: 0
Points: 9 (9)
Goals scored: 6 (9)
Goals conceded: 15 (12)
Despite eight of the ten games ending winless, the games measured against corresponding fixtures last year are no worse or better off. It just goes to show what a poor season it was last season.
After 15 Games
Points difference compared to fixtures last season: +6
Points: 19 (13)
Goals scored: 10 (17)
Goals conceded: 19 (21)
Goal difference compared to fixtures last season – -5
While Villa are six point to the good over the corresponding fixtures last season they have scored almost half the goals they did last season, which is a cause for concern. The return of Christian Benteke though should hopefully remedy that situation. Also, hopefully Villa will score more than two goals in a game sometime this season!
Road Ahead
The encouraging news is Villa should make further improvement on last season’s results as the same five corresponding fixtures last season that make up Villa’s next five games, only saw a return of two points. Villa would certainly look to improve on that by at least a minimum of four or five points.
Next five games – last season’s results
WBA (a) D 2-2
Man United (h) L 0-3
Swansea (a) L 1-4
Sunderland (h) D 0-0
Crystal Palace (h) L 0-1
One point from those three home games above is well below the standard expected, so a decent Christmas for Lambert’s men at Villa Park should bare further fruits of improvement on last season.
After only 38 points last season though, the big question is how big an improvement will it be?
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We scraped a draw against Burnley, scraped a win against Palace, scraped a win against Leicester, and fucked up completely against the Baggies….. add those to the complete and utter defeats to the ‘sky’ teams and then cellar dwellers QPR, and you can see that Lambert has not got a clue about team selection and tactics. Don’t give me the ‘managers hands are tied’ shit, or the ‘finances are tight’ crap, Lambert doesn’t know his arse from his elbow. He had to have all his other centre backs injured before he would play Okore, and the same type of thing will have to happen to our midfielders before he will play Grealish and Gardner.
Fuck knows what they do in training with all the injuries they get, I mean wtf is happening with Kozak? He had his leg broken yes? How come Alan Shearer breaks a leg, and is back in 6 weeks? Ok I know some breaks are worse, but he’s been out for nearly a year, why so long? (I’m in Oz, so don’t hear ‘local’ news stories, but I scan social media and BBC sports, etc; and nothing?). The quicker we get rid of PL, the quicker we will get sorted. Bring back Brian Little.
Sorry, I’m having a bit of a rant, but I’ve supported the team since before we dropped into division 3, and I can’t remember such insipid performances against such shit opposition.
I count myself lucky to have seen the Villans at Wembley, at Old Trafford when we beat Everton in the 77 League Cup 2nd replay, at Villa Park when we smashed Liverpool 5-1, at Highbury when we clinched our only top tier championship win since 1910, and of course at Rotterdam in 1982. Unfortunately, watching all those great players like Cowans, Mortimer, Gray, Little, Shaw, Gidman, etc; has made it even more unpalatable to watch the comparative rubbish that inhabits our team now (with the possible exception of Benteke…. if serviced correctly). Maybe another manager could make a silk purse out of the current sows ear collection of players, because Lambert certainly cannot!!
It’ll be five relegation battles on the trot. I’ve never experienced anything like that during my time supporting Villa and that includes a relegation, and within a few seasons of that we finished league runners-up.
Lerner with the help of Lambert has downgraded the club in status and dissolved its ambition. And the apathy of fans is there for all to be seen.
They’ll probably be more United fans at Villa Park next week.
easiest Xmas in years – especially now Paddy Rasputin has done one….
Even Vlaar looks like he’s going to be fit for it too (for a change).
if we can get seven points that would be ok nine would be the best we could probably hope for
but even seven would put us on 26 points, with one game of the return fixtures gone
that would put us in a pretty good position to build on