Uncomfort zone

Dave Woodhall on why Villa might finally be starting to perform.

Aston VillaWe have to make our own entertainment now the transfer window’s closed. Newspaper still have to find their usual quota of just enough stories to fill in the blanks and Sky Sports News has to come up with something, anything to repeat for the next 24 hours.

Another, more obvious, side-effect of the transfer window ending is that we’ve got to make do with what we’ve got for the rest of the season. They might not be everything we wanted, but this is it and the Villa’s short-term future depends on them. Shades of Graham Taylor’s legendary half-time team talk at Crewe in the FA Cup, 1989 – two down, he walked into the dressing room, announced to the players “You got yourselves into this mess, you can get yourselves out of it,*” and left. Villa promptly won 3-2.

The players we’ve got now are, with a couple of minor exceptions, the ones that got us into this mess, and it’s up to them to get us out of it. To be fair to them (not necessarily something they deserve), the past two games have seen a fighting spirit that had seemed not so much lost as non-existent in the first place. Villa played well for 70 minutes at Everton, and against West Ham on Sunday they obeyed Paul Lambert’s midweek call to ‘win ugly.’

Most of the game was as depressing as the weather but once Charles N’Zogbia was fouled in the box, Christian Benteke scored the resultant penalty then N’Zogbia curled a lovely free kick in from twenty-odd yards, Villa were able to relax and see the game out without drama. Or something.

It may not have been entirely convincing but it was a win, and in the current situation that was the only thing that mattered. Villa are out of the bottom three (hopefully for good) and the spirit the side showed in celebrating both goals and the final whistle reminded me of something else that was said a few ago. It was back in the days of John Gregory when Martin Swain wrote in the Express & Star that “There is a good living to be made at Villa Park provided the club never looks in any real danger of getting relegated.”  For a long time that’s been the case. Villa pay good wages, even by Premier League standards, but there never seems to be any great pressure on the team to succeed. Whenever things are going well we never expect them to last, and whenever we’re on the big stage always give the impression that we’re there by accident and don’t really belong. ‘Comfortable’ is a word that perfectly describes life at Villa Park. Unless, of course, something comes along to upset this harmonious state of affairs, such as the prospect of relegation.

Up until the last couple of weeks there’s been an expectation that things would automatically improve at some stage. Either we’d get a run going, or else money would be spent during January. Neither happened and the realisation has dawned that that comfortable life might be coming to an end. Relegation has become a real possibility and with it economies, wage cuts and the frightening prospect of a tour around some of the less salubrious football grounds of England. Maybe – and it’s still early days so nothing can be taken for granted – such a future has frightened a few minds into focussing on the job in hand.  If it has, then it’s about time.

Thanks to an inability to defend both setpieces and leads against lower division sides Villa have a free weekend coming up, followed by games against Arsenal and Manchester City. Both look difficult on paper but are also strangely winnable. We’ve got a decent record at the Emirates while the league champions seem to have taken early retirement and their season is as good as over.  Another two wins and ours might be as well.

* One or two words may have been omitted.

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