Newcastle came, saw and probably expected a battle; but what they actually found was an Aston Villa side lacking in ideas and intensity and were ready to hand the travelling Geordies three points without much resistance. Paul Lambert said this week that the home game with Newcastle last year was a turning point in Villa’s season. Well Villa fans will certainly be hoping this game has a similar effect and the Villa team might actually show up for the next match.
Newcastle, in many ways ‘pulled a Villa’ at Villa Park. What does that mean eh!? Well they harried and rushed any player in claret and blue that got a sniff of possession. They were rewarded quite early into the game for their honest hard-working approach as Karim El Ahmadi was caught in possession resulting in Loic Remy bustling his way through the ever-fragile Villa backline and the majestic Hatem Ben Arfa applied the killer blow.
Villa were totally outplayed for the remainder of the first half, Newcastle exerted more and more influence on the game led by their French composer Hatem Ben Arfa who was terrorising Villa’s flanks. The second half saw Villa produce some fight to the delight of the home faithful and they found an equaliser from a set-piece. There is only one man who gets on the Villa scoreboard at present and that is the infamous big “B”, Christian Benteke and he duly obliged by powering home a header from a corner in the sixty-seventh minute.
Paul Lambert introduced Villa’s new Czech signing Libor Kozak for his debut thus giving the home side an obvious height advantage but Newcastle were in no mood to let Villa off the hook. They countered with menace several times before Hatem Ben Arfa who was head and shoulders above anyone else on the pitch set up his fellow country man Gouffran after Brad Guzan failed to hold on to Ben Arfa’s initial shot. The game was over.
Not for the first time under Paul Lambert, the home faithful were left leaving Villa Park empty-handed. The counter-attacking approach reaps rewards when this Villa side play away from home but unfortunately the possession stats and home wins indicate this Villa side is devoid of ideas when playing at home. The ball is rushed from point A to point C and there is no B besides Benteke.
Villa supporters took great offence recently when Jose Mourinho suggested Villa were effectively a long ball team.
Maybe he was right…
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