An Explanation of Yesterdays News

Yesterday I wrote an article and it wasn’t well received. In fact it went down like a lead balloon.

An unprecedented amount of contempt was shown for the piece, so I now feel the need to express my thoughts with perhaps a greater deal of clarity and without the aid of a forced scenario.

Despite the show of derision though I still stand by the idea I was trying to project, which was that Villa have badly bruised their chances of a European place in an emphatic and embarrassing fashion.

As a Villa fan myself, it hurts to admit this considering our consistency throughout the rest of the season, but our last three results are that of a team that’s struggling towards the finish line.

From a position of great potential, we now find ourselves struggling to keep pace with those scrambling for a European spot.

Only a few weeks ago we were sitting pretty with a game in hand over most of our closest rivals and two games in hand over Spurs and it didn’t seem like an insurmountable task to challenge for fourth place.

Perhaps even worse than our missed opportunity, is what potentially faces us, as instead of looking up the table at what can be achieved, it may now be a case of fending off the challenge of Everton and the infuriatingly good form of Blues, as we look to consolidate our league position.

Of course, it isn’t out of the question for us to return to wining ways and storm back up the table, driven by a desire to eradicate the memories of the past weeks football, but it is unlikely considering our sliding form.

Increasingly though it appears to be more than just a case of working through a sticky patch of form.

John Terry’s alarming exposure of our tendency to tire after an hour would have stung the ears of Villa fans nearly as much as Chelsea’s clinical execution of their plan, as their rope-a-dope tactics paid dividends and they put away three between the 57th and 68th minute

The emphatic exposure of a physical and maybe tactical weakness is concerning, but it’s something that can be worked on in training.

Perhaps more alarming is the manner in which Villa seemingly packed their bags and left after an hour and the resulting consequences to the morale of the team after suffering such a thumping.

The mood is certainly low around Villa Park as James Collis felt the need to publically apologize for his performance via Twitter and even Martin O’Neill couldn’t gleam any positives from the match.

He told BBC Sport “it was a desperately poor performance against admittedly a fine side. We are devastated and we have to fight back from this.”

All focus will now turn to our upcoming fixtures, starting with a trip to Bolton and the visit of Everton in the league, which sandwich the revenge match against Chelsea in the Cup semi-final.

It’ll be a difficult task to get the required maximum points from those two league games to keep us in contention, so it’s now a cup season for Villa in my eyes, which excites me greatly, but also clouds me with annoyance.

Seeing our great run in both cups and our purposeful performance in the final against United only highlights the ability of the team and what we are capable of on our day, so to see us stumble in the league, having done so last season, is extremely frustrating.

Unfortunately we are still adrift of making a serious and sustained fight for a European place, but all this will be forgiven if Chelsea are on the receiving end of a upset in two weeks time.

Posted By Dan Mobbs - Monday March 29, 2010.
Tags: Aston Villa, Premier League