Dave Woodhall watches Villa go down at home to Spurs.
That old saying about lies, damned lies and statistics; it was worth repeating here. The top line tells you that this was as comprehensive an away win as you can get. The truth is that for 42 minutes Villa played as well as we have for a long while and if Villa had finished chances as well as they made them the result would have been a lot different.
Villa’s starting line-up looked worryingly the same as it often is, the Luiz-Ramsey-McGinn trio was back, as was the Watkings/Ings strike force, despite some misgivings. And the game was just three minutes old before worst fears became reality. A poor clearance, an admittedly unlucky deflection and we were a goal down. But rather than crumbling, Villa got into the game and were soon moving with purpose through the Spurs defence. Jacob Ramsey made a run that was only matched in skill by the way his shot was saved, Danny Ings missed a straightfoward chance, Philippe Countinho’s swerving free kick was somehow kept out. The team were looking impressive and an equalisr seemed inevitable
If it’s possible to go in at half-time a goal down and confident Villa managed it, yet Spurs’ first worthwhile attack after the break destroyed all the confidence that had been restored by that first-half performance and from then on there was little to cheer, or even to draw any sort of comfort from.
A third goal led to the belated substitutions of Countinho and Ings, replaced by Leon Bailey and Emiliano Buendia, but once again the only impact new Villa arrivals made was for the opposition. Four-nil within seconds and the only moent of note after that was another injury for Lucas Digne and a booking for replacement Ashey Young.
And so we were left rueing a scoreline that was conclusive even if the ninety minutes didn’t match it. The real difference was up front – swap the two teams’ defences round and the result probably wouldn’t have been much different, swap their respective front lines and it definitely would have. Maybe we should already be thinking about replacements – if we’re thinking they might be found in the Championship, Preston and Nottingham Forest seem to have a couple of young strikers worth having a look at.
However unlucky the end product might have been, Villa lost and that’s been a worryingly common occurence this season. We need a win to stop the short-term rot and we need a bit of optimism to end the season with. There are some fairly hefty season ticket price increases in the offing, and more results like this might make a few supporters think about renewing. In the old days we’d have been seeing a few youngsters given a chance to show what they’re capable of between now and the end of the season but the reality of modern football is that Villa are currently in the middle of a group of clubs where four points is the difference between almost £20 million in prize money. That’s a statistic which might be immoral, but it’s certainly the truth.
