You can’t be disappointed when you’ve won 4-1, but let’s be honest, was that a 4-1 type of game?
It wasn’t for me, as for the first 15 minutes Norwich were way better than us.
So much so that they were well worth their one goal lead after 15 minutes or so.
I can actually say that I felt embarrassed in that period, because we had absolutely nothing to offer (read bloody shocking).
While the line up looked like a 4-3-3, it was more a diamond, with Weimann playing behind the front two.
And it just didn’t work for me. Until Benteke scored. And what a nice goal it was.
It was immediately a game changer and when Benteke got his second within 2 minutes, I immediately felt much better.
Norwich collapsed and we looked a lot more confident.
So much so that we got another two goals. An absolute luxury of late.
But then, it just turned into another borefest for the rest of the game.
Is that unfair?
I don’t know, it’s just how I saw it.
Holt came on for the last 10 minutes and if that’s not a case of a manager just doing an ex player a favour, I don’t know what is.
Bring a bloody kid on instead of a has-been, imo.
And I thought MON was bad in that sense!
Lambert’s mumbling as I speak, but I really can’t be bothered to listen to a word he says.
We’re on 31 points, which should mean we’re safe now.
But I’m by no means convinced.
The fact that I saw Norwich as a major threat says it all.
Yipee how ever we won im chuffed.utv
I agree about the second half but it’s not as if we had to try, Lambert probably told everyone to slow it all down.
The more I see of Vlaar’s passing the more I wonder if he’d make a decent midfielder!
I think my post looks more negative than it’s meant too, Foxy.
To clarify, I’m chuffed we won, but don’t think we were very good
As for Vlaar, agreed, he knocked a couple of long range passes today.
I don’t disagree with you, Badger! I wanted us to completely dominate the second half and get a couple more goals but it seems we’re still only playing for one half of each match.
Is it unfair to look at Holt as very similar to Heskey? Doesn’t bang them in but knows how to position himself and help out other (less experienced) players? And hopefully not fall over, of course. I’d much rather see Helenius play but as much as I’m bewildered by Lambert’s tactics and how he makes the players play, he’s the PL manager and I’m not, and I suspect there’s a good reason Holt is at Villa.
I said that a year ago as he’s got a great shot as well. Not sure if he’s got the engine or mobility though
Agree first 15 I was hiding behind the sofa….. But once we scored we upped it and completey tore them to shreds. Second half we sat back and slowed the game right down and were very comfortable. I thought the only negative was another bad Weimann performance. He works hard bless him but I think he’s well out of his depth. Last 20 today would have been ideal to see what Helenius can do, instead the idiot plays his mate. That’s not on. UTV
Reall
“instead the idiot plays his mate”
Yep, scandalous, that.
And a sackable offence in itself for me, when you’re 4-1 up.
If you can’t give a kid a go today, when can you?
Thought Holt was a good sub, he won us a couple of throws and although is touch was dreadful, his off ball movement pulls defences out of shape, I hope he teaches Helenius, benteke etc how to do that. I feel being critical of him is pointless.
The first 15 minutes we were awful and then Vlaar put in a long ball from the right, I monaed about this and then Benteke scored the first goal which was in fairness a great goal.
Agree about the second half it was very similar to the second half against the baggies. Thats 3 very important points on the board and and 3 goals for which could prove very valuable come the end of the season so i would be prepared to go through it again for 3 pts.
One thing i noted today was how 2 of our players are going in the opposite direction KEA our most improved player who for me was man of the match, he harrassed, tackled and his passing was very good today, and then our biggest let down this season Delph, he just runs down blind alleys and takes on the same player twice, his positioning is terrible as well (I am sure others will disagree).
UTV another 9 points to the 40 point mark
I totally agree with your Delph analysis. There were times he’d get into the final third, and instead if playing a through ball to a runner, would turn backwards and lose it….!!! Had me baffled
Thought Delph did ok as game wore on tbf but he was shocking first half hr. Yep lamberks tactic of hoofing the ball into Benteke worked for once due to some rare brilliance. He probably never do that again but sets him nicely back in the shop window. Tbh apart from his goals he didn’t contribute much else v a piss poor defence. Bit like bent in a way but he gets called lazy. Second goal was awful marking bit like our defending last year. 3rd go all bacuna offside but took it well and fourth luck was with us. Wes hooligan was a fuckin disgrace not celebrating his goal against us completely disrespectful to Norwich IMO I really hope we don’t sign him. Good for half hr v a piss poor villa midfield then died a death no thanks
So everything we do ull find a negative with ye. Mate your life is a very sad one if you cant be happy after that. BENTEKE is class. No doubt about it. Bacuna offside…..wtf!!!!! LAMBERT AND LERNERS CLARET BLUE ARMY
Benteke played the first good game for us since before he was injured and your having a wank fest over it. Pathetic sunshine!
Ffs lamberk wins his 4th home game of the season against a shite Norwich team below us in the league and ur celebrating as if lamberk is mourinho and having a continual wankfest. Lamberk is shit and should be sacked one win in god knows how long dosnt mark him a good manager ffs. I said yesterday that we wud win albeit 2.1 I also said we would get posters on here having a fest over lamberk. No wonder Lerner takes the piss when supporters like you are ecstatic winning one game in a blue moon at home and avoiding relegation. Supporters like you are why Lerner is still here
What a terrible reply. Lerner’s not reading these blogs, he doesn’t care what Helenius thinks, he don’t care what you or I think, or fans claiming he needs to spend or sell up. Lerner’s not Villa owner because 1 fan on astonvillanewsandviews has backed him, he’s owner because no one has made an offer, or hasn’t made a good enough offer in his eyes.
No one’s having a “fest” over Lambert. Villa fans ARE HAPPY that Villa won, and were relatively comfortable in doing so. As I said before the game, this one result isn’t going to change Villa fans thoughts on Lambert, but they’re going to be happy, and that’s about it. The only one overreacting is you.
Never said Lambert was a good manager so I’m unsure where your rant of “wank fest” over Lambert has stemmed from.
He’s currently our manager and Lerners our owner so I’ll support that cheers very much.
And Andrew, spot on, Oohah you really think Lerner looks on here and see’s me congratulating them and having me make decisions for him?
Pull the other one mate. There were 30,000 other reasons yesterday to help him decide his next move, not my view on here.
And on Benteke, yes his form lately has been below par, but put yourself in his shoes….. You have a potential fantastic career ahead of you, your playing for a very average side who, almost week in week out make life (the game) very difficult for you…..I’d be ticked off too!!! It no surprise to see him play well when the rest of the team do too……
Lerner dosnt but 36,000 muppets that go and watch that dross bar yesterday lets him get away with it
And I am absolutely glad 36,000 fans go every game to watch Villa play. The one thing that would absolutely ruin Villa is the day fans truly stopped caring. When that happens, even if Bill Gates came in and decided to buy the Villa and spend near 500m on a squad, 500m on the academy, and anything else, getting that many fans back would be near impossible.
Rubbish if we got a team full of world class players in we would be able to get at least 50k a game assuming ground capacity is increased. Thousands of plastic fans would suddenly support us especially in the midlands as we are nearer than utd etc.
Possibly. Very possible I guess. But then with all the big teams/rich teams now, finding those World Class players… Won’t be easy.
It’s why you don’t talk football with him. lol
After all the stick I’ve been giving the Villa of late, I have to take my hat off to todays performance. At 1-0 down I thought the writing was on the wall but we dug in and put in a display and an exciting display at that. Buzzing right now, what a great win, and more so at home ffs!! Vlaar was a diferent class today, absolutely immense, he needs to stay fit because he is the key to us staying up this year, he could of kept it calm all week. UTV
Great win today, the 2nd half was pretty boring and shit but that happens when both teams don’t want to concede! It was just damage limitation for norwich in the 2nd half and im pretty sure if we risked it trying to get more goals and they had scored then im sure your post would hav been a lot more negative so I’ll take a 4-1 win and a boring half thanks! But do agree wtf was bringing holt on about? Was helenius even on the bench 2day i didn’t see but Robinson was so why not give him the last 10 mins out wide and leave gabby up front?
Just woke up, did we win? Hey bought a bottle of whisky to drown my sorrows and was told 4-1 I knew I should have waited to see the game,
i have been critical of benteke this week with good reason. but today you saw why we need him and without him we struggle. benteke was awesome so strong he bullied both norwich’s defence.
beats the hell out of me, why he chose today’s game to wake up from his hibernation, but i for one am really grateful he did.
also kea i agree play one of his best games since the wba game , i thought delph was alright, maybe because he does plays at a higher level, you notice when it drops a little.
Apart from his goals he didn’t offer much else the same we accuse bent off. He was anonymous for most of the game and offside a zillion times as per normal. Having said that looks like he’s saved us from the drop yet again. We will struggle without next year that’s for sure
Evidence right there….. You watch the games with your eyes closed. He got the ball down and spread play countless times, won 90% of his flick ons (we all know that’s a lot of times), scored twice………. The complete package today.
totally agree helenius 🙂 he was unplayable today. totally don’t understand why hes wanted until now to start. but long may it stay ~ benteke encourages other’s players to also perform.
You clearly didn’t watch the game, not even an armchair supporter.
Guest I’ve given up on him, nothing he says makes sense anymore, he’s had a go at Wes Hoolihan because he didn’t celebrate the goal, the lad was let down by his club from coming to Villa,and you could read into that by his face.
So if Benteke had scored v spurs and didn’t celebrate because he’s sulking about not joining them you would be happy would you!
Benteke never claimed he wanted to go there, his agent never claimed he wanted to go there. Hell, why would he have wanted to go there? Lol
In that case benteke was let down by us as we wouldn’t let him go to spurs. Same thing. He is under contract ffs why was he let down by his club
Let down by who? You’re making up this claim that Benteke wanted a move to Tottenham. Never good to make things up. 😉
I feared the worst after 15 mins, but great goal changed the momentum. Can’t believe I’m saying this but disappointed in our approach to the second half, we sat back too much and invited Norwich to attack. Against a team with a better cutting edge we could have been embarrassed (Liverpool 2nd half) I know that some will see it as a positive to see out the game/not concede but don’t think we have the players to pass another side to death or a Chelsea-esque defence to absorb all the pressure.
Midfield is still too weak and lacks bite. But I must say KEA did well breaking up the play in our purple patch. Weimann also huffed and puffed and forced mistakes from Norwich defence.
Tettey should have gone for the studs challenge on Baker and Gabby unlucky not to get a penalty for handball by Russell Martin.
Overall relieved, just wish we’d be more consistent over the 90mins rather than peaks and troughs.
Just been reading about Chris Herd, he will not ne selected for Aston Villa until further notice and has pulled out of the Aussie squad due to personal reasons
Yes, I saw that and hope it all gets better, whatever it is.
just really happy with a win at last and something for the fans to be pleased about, in fact the players too. hopefully the team will take a little confidence from this as they did last season after the sunderland game and put a decent run in together.
gotta say I agree with the kea and delph analysis.
we didn’t kick on in the 2nd half but it was important not to go conceding an early one and Norwich didn’t offer much at all.
get save from guzan at the end and a wonderful run from baccuna to receive the ball for his goal.
Football is football mump grump moan groan get a grip
Blimey, that’s a shame about Herd.
Sounds like he has a major problem (and not in a nasty way if you read the club’s wording).
I hope he gets sorted.
Do you know wots wring badger. Is it an illness
“There will be no further comment and we request that Chris’s privacy be respected.”
Wish the lad well whatever the reasons but that above don’t sound to clever.
highly negative posts ooah even by your standards, I don’t think anyone is having a ‘wankfest’ or getting carried away, I think everyone involved with villa are just happy about a decent win and 3pts, a loss yesterday would have been a disaster.
benteke btw had a great game and was MOTM in every analysis you care to mention in the media so I don’t really see why you are slagging him off, the 1st goal was world class ffs.
we have another win from a loosing position which is impressive considering our often paper thin confidence especially at home. not sure but I believe we have the highest stat for coming from behind(giggedy!)in the premier this season.
personally id have taken a 1-0 win with the ball bouncing in off holts arse if it meant 3 pts, yesterday was a massive 3pts no doubt in real terms and psychologically for the team.
A welcome 3 points. Like many I feared disaster after we went a goal behind. Storming comeback with a couple of very good goals. The second half was a bit muted but I was quite pleased with that in a way. We were in a winning position in an important match so we just kept our shape rather than going hung ho and risking a Norwich comeback.
Hopefully this puts enough daylight between us and a few other teams. Wouldn’t it be nice if Benteke’s goals signalled a return to his form of last season?
As I’ve said in previous posts my eyes was on Benteke, prior games was giving me thoughts of want away games from him. Have to say no sign of that yesterday, key man up front holding up the ball and laying it of, some thought Delp had a bad game, not in my eyes,he and kea did their jobs, Weimann needs to steady himself hard worker but fumbles a lot, Oohah why have a go at Wes Hoolihan for not celebration of the goal, he like most players has an Axe to grind with the club he plays for, he thought he was going to be a Villa man but got stopped by Norwich and you could see that was on his mind, never the less he did score, and thinking about the game them signs of complacency crept in second harf , what’s Lambert thinking on Holt its got me , never be a good player for us.
A thrashing at last! Benteke’s goal gave the team a surge in confidence, and that is the key to this Villa team, they are dangerous when they believe they have the upper hand, but bottle it when they try to contain. I thought our third goal was brilliant, and I’ve looked at it again, Bacuna was level, not offside.
For the benefit of other Stattos that was Benteke’s 5th attempt at that over the shoulder shot this season. 3rd on target and 2 going over. The other two: 1 caught by the keeper and the other parried back towards Benteke but hand-balled away from him.
Roll on ManC. Another team whose confidence during a game can be a roller coaster, so I hope they don’t go 2 up. If we score first or level, we might do them again. None of their other defenders nor either of their keepers ever thinks Kompany will miss a clearance, so they do not cover him.
I suppose relief is the greatest emotion that I’m feeling today, after having gone behind.
We scored four good goals, and then closed the game out in a very professional manner.
Just enjoy the result and worry a lot less about the ‘certainties for relegation’ posts.