Villa 0-0 West Ham. Sep 16th
Sky television was my best friend for another evening, screening our home fixture against the kit stealing West Ham Utd (they think they own the claret & blue but they don’t, we do). This was an opportunity to kickstart our stuttering return to the Premiership, a chance to blow away the cobwebs from our cruel Palace defeat and get weaving. Sadly, however, we fluffed our lines, toiling to a goalless draw against a team reduced to ten men for the last half hour. A great opportunity missed.
We stroked the ball around adequately and advanced regularly to the edge of their box but ran out of ideas once in range of goal, cacking ourselves at the sight of their net. A couple of good chances were muffed (Wesley and Grealish) but beyond that we really didn’t look likely, McGinn hammered a trio of long range shots to excite the crowd but none troubled their keeper in earnest. The game was rather like a shadow boxing contest, neither contestant laying a meaningful glove on the other, a scoreless draw probably the fairest outcome.
The reduction of West Ham’s numbers by referee Mike Dean was pretty unfair, he dished out a second yellow to Masuaku for little more than blowing a raspberry at Elmohamady. If our player had been dismissed for the same ‘offence’ there’d have been mayhem in the stands but Mike Dean isn’t slow to steal the limelight, gleefully rising to his tiptoes to theatrically issue a red card to an indignant West Ham midfielder.
This solitary point sneaked us out of the relegation zone but that’s immaterial so early in the campaign, we needed all three tonight but couldn’t up our game sufficiently. The energy is there, the defence appears solid, the midfield is hard working and the crowd supportive, but the strikers really don’t convince and already we’re wondering where the goals are going to come from. I haven’t bothered attaching a link to match highlights, there weren’t any.
We stroked the ball around adequately and advanced regularly to the edge of their box but ran out of ideas once in range of goal, cacking ourselves at the sight of their net. A couple of good chances were muffed (Wesley and Grealish) but beyond that we really didn’t look likely, McGinn hammered a trio of long range shots to excite the crowd but none troubled their keeper in earnest. The game was rather like a shadow boxing contest, neither contestant laying a meaningful glove on the other, a scoreless draw probably the fairest outcome.
The reduction of West Ham’s numbers by referee Mike Dean was pretty unfair, he dished out a second yellow to Masuaku for little more than blowing a raspberry at Elmohamady. If our player had been dismissed for the same ‘offence’ there’d have been mayhem in the stands but Mike Dean isn’t slow to steal the limelight, gleefully rising to his tiptoes to theatrically issue a red card to an indignant West Ham midfielder.
This solitary point sneaked us out of the relegation zone but that’s immaterial so early in the campaign, we needed all three tonight but couldn’t up our game sufficiently. The energy is there, the defence appears solid, the midfield is hard working and the crowd supportive, but the strikers really don’t convince and already we’re wondering where the goals are going to come from. I haven’t bothered attaching a link to match highlights, there weren’t any.
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