From BBC Sport:
Houllier was, however, more optimistic about signing Colorado Rapids striker Omar Cummings on loan until March.
Cummings is having a trial at Villa and Houllier said: “The MLS season is finished and Omar will probably be here until March.
“He is quick and can also play on the wing and, don’t forget, we have not [...]
Major League Soccer (MLS) Rumors – For the time between the games
There’s one EPL fixture on Monday, December 6, 2010 as Liverpool hosts Aston Villa. Below is a brief match preview along with a live blog. The live blog will begin coverage around 2:50 PM EST (7:50 PM local UK time).
Match Preview
Liverpool (last 6 EPL matches – WWDLWL)
After a very slow start, Liverpool is slowly climbing their way up the EPL table. They have own their last three league matches at Anfield but are without several key players. Liverpool will be far from full strength with injuries to Jamie Carragher and Steve Gerrard.
Aston Villa (last 6 EPL matches – DDWDLL)
Villa are winless in their last four away EPL matches and only two points above the relegation zone. They have six points from their last six matches and a -10 goal difference in away matches. Betting odds have Aston Villa as 11/2 to get the win.
Prediction
Even without Carragher and Gerrard, Liverpool have been strong at Anfield and should get the win against a struggling Villa side.
Live Blog
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Seeing that tomorrow’s Spurs/Reds game was David The Yank’s 4-star selection of the weekend, this will be the Bonus review.
Aston Villa v Arsenal Starting Formations
On a cold day in Greater Birmingham, UK, Arsenal visited Aston Villa looking to reverse the fortunes of the past week, including a home collapse against Tottenham and a Champions League loss to Sporting Braga. The Villans had only won once in their previous 5 matches, and needed to start finding their form for manager Gerard Houllier.
The first half was spent mostly in Aston Villa’s end. Aston Villa’s 4-4-1-1 formation was ineffective at generating offensive chances, and Arsenal’s brilliant passing regimen within Manager Arsene Wenger’s favored 4-2-3-1 form was in full effect. Wingers Andrey Arshavin and Samir Nasri were adept at getting the ball in open space and delivering crosses in towards striker Marouane Chamakh.
The scoring opened as Arshavin took advantage of a midfield mistake, and at the edge of the area cut back towards the center of the pitch. He rifled a shot through center-back James Collins’ legs and into the goal. Minutes later, Chamakh headed on goal a perfect cross from right fullback Bacary Sagna, and only a quick Friedel right hand kept it out. The ensuing corner kick by Arshavin was delivered to the far edge of the area, and Nasri volleyed the ball off the turf and past Friedel for a 2-0 lead at the half.
The Villans’ first half attacking philosophy was that of long balls in the direction of Carew, especially from right-back Luke Young. Robert Pires, acquired recently, was rather ineffective in being the bridge between the midfield and Carew, and it was no surprised that he was brought off for more firepower up front. In switching formations to a 4-4-2, Houllier brought in Nathan Delfouneso. He also swapped the wide midfielders, Stewart Downing for Ashley Young. This change brought Young more into the attack on Gael Clichy’s side, which was targeted by Tottenham the week before. With Young leading the team in assists, this would seem to be a sound strategy, and one wonders why it wasn’t tried earlier. By the numbers, Young completed only 9 passes in the first half; in the second half, he completed twice that number.
The positive change paid off at first. Off of a deflection, Clark received the ball just inside the area, and he laced a shot past Lukasz Fabianski for 2-1.
Unfortunately for Aston Villa, 5 minutes later Rosicky fed a through ball to Chamakh, who directed the ball under a sliding Friedel’s arm to regain the two goal advantage.
The final adjustment to formation came in the 67th minute as Houllier brought off Carew in favor of a midfielder, Stephen Ireland. To keep the offensive pressure on Arsenal, Ashley Young was moved forward to the vacated striker role. As the game moved into the last 30 minutes, Houllier also brought center back Richard Dunne into more offensive wingback roles.
Aston Villa v Arsenal 67th Minute Substitutions
In the 71st minute, Clark found the net again. Dunne headed an Ashley Young corner forward just inside the central area. Clark’s headed effort hit the underside of the bar and came down just inside the goal to make it 3-2. As the Villa tried to find the equalizer in the waning moments, youngster Jack Wilshere headed home a perfect setup by Chamakh from 6 yards to close out the scoring 4-2.
This game could have been sewn up more easily had Wenger made his defensive substitutions sooner, say after their 3rd goal. Of course that wouldn’t be Wenger, so you simply accept that his teams are going to leak goals and give teams like the Villans a chance to creep back into matches.
Aston Villa took too much of a defensive approach to start. A direct, disjointed approach in Carew’s direction did not produce. Houllier made adjustments to get Ashley Young the ball against the left side of the Arsenal defense, and once that started happening, chances opened up for Aston Villa. Unfortunately for Villan fans they were behind 2-0 when those changes commenced.
Aston Villa v Arsenal 11.27 Match Stats
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This week saw Gerard Houllier make Robert Pires his first signing since arriving as Aston Villa manager. Back in 2001 Pires was labelled one of the best players in the world. He was winning trophies with club and country but that was nine years ago and the 37 year old legs just don’t have the pace any more but as we have seen with players such as Ryan Giggs and Clarence Seedorf, a footballing brain always gets better with age and this can only be good for Villa’s young squad.
I’ve been a avid spectator of the La Liga for the last six or seven seasons now and I’ve watched Pires almost every week for Villareal. When he first arrived at the club he didn’t make the impact that we all thought he would but for the last three seasons he’s been moved into the middle of midfield and just like a fine wine Pires got better with age. His patience play and skilful passing are just a few things that have dazzled some of Spain’s top defender’s and this is something I’m looking forward to seeing at Villa Park.
Pires could make his Villa debut on Saturday against Blackburn and his arrival will be a boost for Monsieur Houllier’s squad which has been depleted this last month by injuries to strikers John Carew and Emile Heskey, and midfielders Stiliyan Petrov, Nigel Reo-Coker and Steve Sidwell. Villa’s assistant manager Gary McAllister believes the signing of Pires will be beneficial to the promising youngsters at the club and I couldn’t agree more. The Frenchman’s knowledge should be welcomed by all the youngsters but welcomed with open arms from winger Marc Albrighton who’s performance against Manchester United last week showed just why he’s tipped as one of England’s next superstars.
After last weeks performance I was proud to be a Villa fan. The youngsters dug in deep and really took the game to Fergie’s world beaters and should have walked away with all three points but like always United played poorly but still got a point from a game that was dominated by Villa. I know Albrighton got all the applause for his man of the match performance but there were two midfielders who were overlooked by the reporters and TV pundits. Jonathan Hogg and Barry Bannan were playing centre midfield up against Darren Fletcher and Michael Carrick. You’d think it would be a total mismatch. Think again. The two youngsters didn’t look out of place and really made the United midfielders look average at best.
Another boost for Villa’s squad was the return of Gabriel Agbonlahor. Having him up front gives Villa a complete different style and a more positive style than when we have Heskey or Carew up top. Last week we were playing the balls down the channels and using Gabby’s pace and strength at full force. Agbonlahor played as a lone striker and proved a real handful for United’s defenders. I’ve always been a believer that when Agbonlahor’s plays Ashley Young is given an extra yard or two with the ball which is always dangerous with a player of such talent which he showed last Saturday in the second half where he terrorised the oppositions defence.
This week sees Villa travel to Ewood Park to face Blackburn Rovers. Sam Allardyce’s team are a very inconsistent team where one week their winning comfortably away at Newcastle but then get trounced at Spurs the following weekend. I believe Villa will come away with all three points especially after last weeks performance which should have given the squad a real morale booster. If we score early we could win the game comfortably just like Spurs did last week but if we sit off players like Morten Gamst Pedersen and David Dunn then we could get punished. My prediction Villa 2 – Blackburn 1.
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In arguably the weekend’s marquee match, undefeated Manchester United traveled to Birmingham to take on undefeated at home Aston Villa to open Premier League play on Saturday. The match itself placed 10th against 2nd in the league while it saw United coming off one of their best team performances of the season, Wednesday’s Manchester derby.
Aston Villa are in the midst of an injury crisis which witnessed the Villans without the services of John Carew, Emile Heskey, Stiliyan Petrov, Nigel Reo-Coker and Steve Sidwell, among others. For all their absentees, Villa were by far the better team in what ended up a scoreless first half. Numerous balls into the box, both from Marc Albrighton on the right and Stewart Downing on the left, were flown into United’s penalty area yet Villa lacked the height and attacking gusto needed to head home.
Manchester United failed to really test Brad Friedel in the first half through a two-man strike force of Dimitar Berbatov and Javier Hernandez. The game’s second half witnessed a resurgent Villa and a United side that continued to lack any real spark in attack, until late on.
For the neutral, the match would have been an entertaining and open contest that ended with both sides sharing a point. Villa hit both the crossbar and the post in the second half before finally finding the breakthrough when Ashley Young converted a well deserved penalty.
Villa’s second of the day was the result of a spot on counter attack when Marc Albrighton deservedly finished after playing well throughout the match. While Villa continued to boss the match, United remained lackluster until Sir Alex Ferguson elected to pull his two starting strikers in favor of Federico Macheda and Gabriel Obertan who both provided the spark United needed to take control of the match late on.
Without further ado, here are five observations from what ended up a great Premier League match.
As exciting as the game was for the neutral, both sets of supporters will likely feel slightly disappointed. Villa thought the three points belonged to them while United fans will view the draw as yet another two points dropped.
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With the injuries piling up at Villa Park the youngsters have been given a chance by Aston Villa boss Gerard Houllier. Marc Albrighton broke into the team under care-taker boss Kevin McDonald but now youngsters Barry Bannan, Ciaran Clark and Nathan Delfouneso have been given a run in the first team and the Villa kids were pivotal to the 3-2 win over Blackpool.
As a Villa fan its been tough watching this year and when DJ Campbell scored in the 87th minute I thought it was going to be another Fulham and Stoke match when we just didn’t have the killer instinct to kill off the game. That was until James Collins and my vote for Villa’s Player of the Year so far popped up with a bullet header. I’ve always been a big fan of the Welsh international and after his late winner his popularity will surely increase with the rest of the Villa faithful.
Villa have always prided themselves on their youth development bringing through players such as Gabriel Agbonlahor, Craig Gardner, Liam Ridgewell, Gary Cahill, Steven Davis, Darius Vassell and, as far back as Lee Hendrie, producing some of Britain’s best footballers. Now Marc Albrighton is being named as the next talent to come off the Villa youth conveyor belt.
Albrighton has been a revelation this year and the young winger has shown some fantastic potential that has had his name linked with future England caps. Last week at Fulham, Albrighton was the best player on the park turning Fulham’s Mexican international left back inside out. The winger then went and topped off his performance with a goal. It’s a shame the game will now not be remembered for the performance of Albrighton but for the late equaliser from Fulham’s tall defender Brede Hangeland.
The name on all the Villa fans lips after Wednesday nights performance is striker Nathan Delfouneso. He looked dangerous with pace and an eye for goal I haven’t seen since Gabriel Agbonlahor burst onto the scene a few years back. All night he was on the shoulder of the Blackpool centre half’s waiting for the killer pass to set him free. This was evident when Delfouneso confidentally scored Villa’s second. His performance could have been — no, should have been — completed with a second after
the referee disallowed a a perfectly good header for the striker and that would have been a third for Villa and would have finished Blackpool off. Instead we had to go through the anguish of a late winner.
The last two Villa games have been a better improvement from the dour performance against Birmingham a fortnight ago. I believe this happened because of the introduction of the young players to the starting eleven. There’s definitely a sense of no pressure from the youngsters competing for places and that’s rubbing off onto the senior players who have performed well.
This weekend the youngsters are going to have the biggest test of the their short career so far when they come up against Manchester United. I am pretty confident that we can come away with the three points on Saturday as we have home advantage and Alex Ferguson in the past has said on more than one occasion that the trip to Villa Park is the hardest away game of the season. This Saturday will prove if Alan Hansen was right when he said “you can’t win anything with kids.” Or will we be saying the kids are all right on the night?
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