Dave Woodhall watches Villa return to form.
You can guarantee that when Villa get a run going and raise expectations they manage to crash back to earth almost immediately. Beating Swansea would have not only been a fourth successive win but more importantly would have put a healthy cushion between us and the rest of our fellow strugglers. In the circumstances the result was inevitable.
There was never going to be a repeat of the drama of both Albion games nor the domination of last week’s performance at Sunderland – Swansea are better than either of them for a start. And from the kick-off it was clear that Villa were in for an afternoon of struggle.
The visitors were quicker, sharper and used the ball better. Had their strikers been up to the quality of their midfield they would have had the game won by half-time but at the break thoughts turned to the last match at Villa Park, where Tim Sherwood had been able to change the pattern of play to eventually win with ease. It didn’t take long after the re-start to see that such a reversal wasn’t going to happen today.
Injuries didn’t help, with Tom Cleverley going off in the first half and Christian Benteke with fifteen minutes to go. The second of these was particularly unfortunate as it seemed to inspire Swansea to attack again in search of a winner – which they got with five minutes to go. Even then Villa could still have rescued a point when almost straight from the restart Scott Sinclair found himself unmarked in the visitors penalty area but with time to bring the ball down he tried to be too spectacular and his volley sailed over the bar.
Other results over the weekend were either fortuitous or frustrating depending on how you look at them. The bottom seven clubs all lost, which means Villa are no worse off and another game has gone by. But against that, a win would have seen safety all but assured. Now we have a difficult run after the international break(note to Roy Hodgson – Fabian Delph’s playing terribly just lately. Whatever you do, don’t pick him) and at least eight points from the final four home games are essential.
If anything, Saturday’s game showed what Villa have to do to improve. Swansea are top of the middle tier in the Premier League, probably three players short of breaking into the top group. Villa are another three, at least, behind them. That’s the scale of the task facing Tim Sherwood. The least he can do in the short-term is make me stop cheering a Chelsea win. And in the even shorter-term, somebody get rid of that bloody drum.
