Villa draw with West Ham. Dave Woodhall doesn’t enjoy the conditions.
Some years ago, when football was on its knees and crowds dwindling by the season, the idea of playing in the summer would sometimes be put forward as a way of bringing back the missing hordes. That idea’s been shelved now but on a horrible, cold, blustery, wet day at Villa Park, the thought of watching in shirt sleeves had its attractions.
Villa were coming off the back of a midweek Champions League defeat and made a couple of changes from last week’s draw with Arsenal, Leon Bailey getting yet another definitely, positively last chance. The big talk was about Jhon Duran not starting, with the visitors having done their charming best to upset the situation with a pitifully low offer to buy him earlier in the week.
Not that Villa seemed too upset at first. The team started well and went into a deserved early lead when Ollie Watkins’ return ball to Jacob Ramsey was placed perfectly for the young midfielder, now looking almost as good as he was before a series of injuries, to put them ahead after eight minutes.
Two minutes later Morgan Rogers had a goal ruled out for offside while Youri Tielemans wasn’t far wide with a shot and Watkins didn’t connect properly with a more or less free header. All seemed fine despite the weather but then came the turning point of the match. Tyrone Mings went down under a heavy challenge and although he was able to continue for a few minutes eventually had to go off. With no recognised central defender on the bench Ian Maatsen came on with Lucas Digne moved inside and naturally enough he was targeted by the visitors for the rest of the game.
Villa were definitely struggling after the break and the best keeper in the world made a couple of errors. The first, when he collided with Matty Cash, was rescued by Ezri Konsa clearing off the line bur the second, when he hesitated in going for a cross, led to the equaliser. Best in the world he may be, but he’s made a few mistakes this season, although that’s not been helped by not having a regular defence in front of him.
The ref, who seemed to be suffering from intermittent blindness where fouls by West Ham players were concerned, particularly when they should have led a red card, at least redeemed himself in the closing stages when he ruled out a visiting goal for offside, although the flag was up the instant the ball crossed over the line. A draw was about the best Villa deserved.
Where we go from here is a moot point. Back to Villa Park for the visit of Celtic on Wednesday is the obvious answer but after that, the future is uncertain. We’re still not that far off the top four, and there were some signs for optimism. Ramsey’s back to his best, Boubacar Kamara is top-class and new signing Donyell Malen looked decent enough when he came on.
Against that, the folly of letting Diego Carlos go before a replacement had been signed was proved and the team yet again lacked urgency. Unai seems to be changing the style of play to cope better with a crowded schedule and we can only hope that when he gets it right, it will still be needed,
