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Written for My Old Man Said and published there on 8/4/15

The Good, the Bad and the Ugly of Aston Villa’s Week as Relegation Battle Intensifies

good bad ugly aston villa

After the thrilling and frustrating yet relieving draw with Queens Park Rangers, Villa sit three points clear of relegation, albeit having played at least a match more than everyone apart from Tuesday night’s opponents. With just six games left – three difficult away ties and three winnable home clashes – here’s a look at the Good, Bad and Ugly of the 3-3 nerve-wrecker.

Good

Christian Benteke seems the obvious place to start here. His first goal ten minutes into the game showed that he was in the mood – it was the first opportunity that he’d had to get the ball down and run at the QPR defence, and they couldn’t handle him.

His second was fantastic, showing the kind of composure that only a player oozing confidence can pull off, and his free-kick for the third was perfectly placed past a wall which was only about seven yards away by the time he struck it. He saved us from a catastrophic defeat, and he’s come into form at a crucial time with seven goals in seven games under Sherwood after two in 16 under Lambert this season.

Another pleasing aspect of the game was his partnership with Agbonlahor up top. Gabby has received his fair share of stick this season, generally justifiably, but he and Benteke always seemed to know where each other were throughout the game and linked up nicely. Agbonlahor was unlucky not have scored with a great header, and he did superbly to beat Sandro (a player, incidentally, who approaches tackling the same way that a bull approaches a matador) to the ball to play Benteke through to put Villa 2-1 up.

Jack Grealish’s first Premier League start was predictably greeted by excitement from the Villa faithful and he did not disappoint, showing guile, enthusiasm and desire. His first-half chance was undeniably a golden opportunity but the defender’s touch on the ball meant he had to quickly readjust under pressure. With more experience and game time under his belt you’d have backed him to score it.

How anyone can have thought that Grealish’s performance on his first league start was deserving of being singled out for criticism is utterly beyond me. His set-piece delivery was largely poor, but his display was encouraging at the very least.

Two guys sat behind me on the Holte End spent the entirety of the teenager’s time on the pitch ripping his performance to pieces. I considered turning round to tell them to give it a rest, but I didn’t because I’m British and as such I strive to avoid even the mildest form of confrontation.

Villa’s first half was superb after going 0-1 down – the home side were utterly dominant, had 14 shots in the first half (more than in the first half of any other game this season) and should have had the game won by the break. If Villa can work on taking more of the chances that they carve out and tighten up the defence, all three remaining home games this season are distinctly winnable.

Bad

Tim Sherwood has undoubtedly brought more excitement and enthusiasm to Villa, and the club’s attacking play has generally improved dramatically since his arrival. However, his tactical naivety is clear on occasion, something which is a big problem while the club battle for survival. In the defeat to Swansea in the last home game he failed to pack the midfield, resulting in Villa being overrun from the first whistle.

Against Rangers it was Chris Ramsay who turned the game on its head after Villa’s first-half dominance. Sherwood’s assistant from his time at Spurs reshuffled his pack to go to three at the back and made two substitutions early in the second half when it became clear things weren’t any better for the away side.

In contrast, Sherwood waited until there were just 20 minutes left – with QPR having pulled level three minutes after Ramsay’s double change and arguably been the more threatening side from then on – to make his first change. Villa need him to be proactive, not merely reactive.

Carles Gil’s time under Sherwood went from bad to worse this week. Although rumours of a bust-up and his storming out of the club have been shown to be false – the Spaniard was at Villa Park on Tuesday for the game – he continues to be ignored and the snub worsened with him now not even making the bench.

How Sherwood thinks our squad is good enough to leave him out entirely is beyond me. There is a danger in placing too much value on a player who has only started four league games for the club, but he undoubtedly showed enough during his spells on the pitch to indicate that he is a player who could contribute massively during the crucial run-in.

Ugly

QPR’s goals were dreadful ones to concede. Matt Phillips’ opener was shocking – Kieran Richardson was beaten easily down Rangers’ right flank and Villa’s failure to clear the ball was abysmal. Forget Eric Cantona’s kung-fu kick, forget Luis Suarez’s bite(s), Leandro Bacuna’s ‘clearing’ header back into the heart of his own penalty area was possibly the worst thing I have ever seen in football.

QPR’s second came about from an atrocious lack of marking, and a baffling lack of a man on the back post from the corner who would have been perfectly placed to stop Clint Hill’s header – instead we had Kieron Richardson marking five square yards of thin air.

Richardson was dreadful defensively all night, and his failure for the umpteenth time in Tuesday’s 90 minutes to contain Phillips, even when ‘helped’ by Carlos Sanchez, allowed QPR to go 2-3 up. Bacuna and Richardson as a full-back pairing is the stuff of nightmares. You can understand Bacuna being picked to attack QPR’s weak left-hand side but any advantages he might have going forward are generally nullified by his attempts at defending.

Villa need Alan Hutton back desperately and, though he’s hardly the best left-back in the world, the return of Aly Cissokho will also be a welcome relief. This season has long since become merely a case of getting through and avoiding the disaster of relegation. For this to happen, they and Sherwood must tighten up the defence, and Benteke must remain in form and be given the service he needs (cc: Carles Gil).

With no home games until May and trips to Tottenham and Manchester City either side of the day out at Wembley, we should perhaps brace ourselves for Villa’s situation being considerably worse by the time we enter the last month of the season. Home form will be key, and it’s going to be uncomfortably tight.