Premier League Match 11 - Southampton 1 Aston Villa 0

 

Pick the Fucking Bones Out of That!

Aston Villa are going to take the Premier League by storm this season. They have rolled back the years to 1982 and are going to be challenging for the top four.  That’s clearly what Danny Ings thought anyway.  Remember when he was only going to leave to go to a Champions League club? I know Villa are historically a huge club but Ings has got about three or four years of his career left so what happened historically doesn’t really enter into it. I really wasn’t going to write a rant about Danny Ings but then there was that interview in The Telegraph where he basically said that he had he only ever saw Southampton as a one contract thing. Fuck off – you’re not a Sadio Mane, playing in a lesser league abroad, trying to prove yourself at Southampton and move to a big club – you were a ‘back from the dead’ injury prone player, born in Winchester and raised in Netley.

I know we position ourselves as the club that players, usually from abroad, come and play for before moving on to bigger and better things but Danny was a hometown boy and that was a card he played quite often. Of course, he was very good for us and we were incredibly good for him bearing in mind he had spent the previous two years before he joined us, on the treatment table at Anfield. His first season for us was very hit and miss because of injuries and so was his third season but he still decided to follow his plan and piss off.  Yes, it was annoying to see Villa fans giving it the big one about how big they were when they signed him but you have to remember that the average loud mouth arsehole on Twitter is not a barometer for the whole fan base.  It is however amusing, that come the first meeting between the teams since Ings slithered away, Saints are higher in the league, albeit just by one place and are putting together a decent run, whereas Villa have lost four in a row.

When Villa were getting smashed 4-1 at home by West Ham last week, Ings was mysteriously absent. The implication was that there was some sort of injury but no specifics were divulged so personally, I would be very surprised if he plays against us tonight. I didn’t know that snakes had hamstrings and calf muscles but it appears that they do and they are a little bit fragile. Who knew?

Since their return to the Premier League, Villa had a pandemic and goal-line technology assisted survival in the first season and then did reasonably well last season, based in the main on their one outstanding player, Jack Grealish who has subsequently been sold. They would’ve done even better last season if Grealish hadn’t have been injured for a couple of months at the end of the season but their record last season with and without their star man was quite stark in its contrast. This year, Dean Smith has had to reinvent the way they play because everything used to go through the departed one. They won a couple of games at the start but now seem to be struggling with all of the bits and pieces players that they bought to fill the void, not pulling up any trees. Leon Bailey has been injured a lot, Ings has been middling to average and Emi Buendia has been looking like what it is, a former Norwich player.

Elsewhere, former saint Matty Targett was excellent last year but it turns out that this was mainly because he had a lot of space because he had Grealish playing in front of him and the other team were justifiably more worried about him. Now he has a normal player in front of him, he is suddenly getting found out.

Dean Smith meanwhile is a bit of a smug twat, a bit like Brendan Rodgers but without the track record to back it up. He also has this habit of being ridiculously one-eyed when it comes to decisions for and against his team. He will be missing Ezri Konsa this week who was deservedly sent off for bringing down a striker when he was last man and he should be without Courtney Hause as well, who got away with a flying forearm smash earlier on in the same move. All Smith could shit on about afterwards though was how the referee got the decision wrong. Hause not being sent off was “down to the referees interpretation”, whereas the Konsa one was apparently wrong and therefore not down to the referees interpretation. Prick.  Also bear in mind that he would have undoubtedly got sacked if they have been relegated in their first season back in the Premier League, which they undoubtedly would’ve been without Sheffield United having a perfectly legal goal ruled out because the goal line technology wasn’t turned on, which therefore gifted Villa an extra two points.

The current Villa side, as mentioned earlier are struggling a bit and Dean Smith seemed to panic last week and dropped his captain, Tyrone Mings but because of the red card last week, we can expect him to play today. He always plays pretty well against us to be fair though he is prone to the odd clanger. Elsewhere, it would certainly suit us if Douglas Luiz is not playing as he is one of their better players but he was another, alongside Ings, who was mysteriously missing last week.

After the win at Watford, Saints team selection will be interesting. Maybe exactly the same side or maybe Armando Broja will be fit and it’ll be interesting to see who gets chosen at left back. In the event, Broja is back on the bench and KWP is at left back.  In fact, it’s the same team as against Watford with one exception.  Nathan Redmond has the dreaded Cov and so in comes Stuart Armstrong.  Villa have Mings back as predicted and partnered by Tuanzebe.  Cash hasn’t handled anything yet and Targett is at left back.  Elsewhere, Luiz is still missing so they have the ironically named Marvelous Nakamba in midfield. And as if we didn’t know already, Danny Ings has slithered off to the treatment room

Two minutes in and our start is typified by a loose ball and a 50-50 which JWP steams into and wins.  He hoists it skywards to where Che Adams puts Cash under pressure. For once, Cash doesn’t catch it but instead turns his back on it and it bounces off of his arse and Adam Armstrong absolutely smashes it first time on the half volley from 25 yards with his left foot and it flies past Martinez before he can even move. What a fucking hit son. 1-0, fucking come on and “Are you watching Danny Ings?”.

To be fair, the Villa reposte of “Danny Ings, he left cos you’re shit” was quite amusing but it’s better to be shit and 1-0 up than shit and 1-0 down.  Villa try to do something about it with Salisu giving away a free kick about 30 yards out and when the delivery is headed back out, McGinn lashes it narrowly over the bar.

Villa are now pressing us quite well and we are trying to play our way our defence and it all looks good, if a little hurried, until JWP gets pushed off the ball and Villa quickly work another opening for Buendia on the edge of the box but he doesn’t get anything on his shot and McCarthy easily falls on it.  If there’s one player in the Villa side used to long losing streaks it’s Buendia.

At the other end, Saints have already won a couple of corners and the delivery has not been great but this time, JWP swings it in from the left hand side, it gets flicked on and there is Stuart Armstrong on his own at the back post but with very little conviction, he waves the leg at it and sends it high into the Northam end. Not living up to his song of scoring worldies all the time.

Tino has started quietly but he comes to life and pisses past El Ghazi on the halfway line who just cynically hacks him down, giving him a deserved booking from Andy Madley. Five minutes later and Tino goes past him again and El Ghazi piles in with an identical foul. A few Saints players remonstrate with the referee who does fuck all. That is an absolute fucking joke.  How can the two outcomes be different.  A different player and it’s a yellow, in the second half it’s a second yellow and a red.  Joke refereeing.

This Is The One That Wasn't Given As a Yellow Card

Typically, in this situation when you know that the player who should be off the pitch is going to score and it looks like it might happen as he goes past Livramento on the right hand side, cuts in and as the whole goal opens up for him to shoot at, he smashes it high into the Chapel End. Wanker.  There was no danger to anyone in the Chapel because they’re used to Shane Long in the warm-up shooting drill.

Saints are still there more threatening side with KWP on the left hand side in particular, showing up well. He feeds inside to Stuart Armstrong who tees up JWP on his right foot from the edge of the box and the skipper hits it well but Martinez sees it all the way and takes off to tip it around the post.

The corner is headed out by Mings and we eventually give it to Tino who is on the left. Tino absolutely burns past Cash who surprisingly, doesn’t use his hands at all. Tino’s ball across sees Che set up Romeu on the edge of the box but he tries to be too deliberate and side foots it narrowly over the bar.

The last action of the first half and it’s El Ghazi time again as he tries to burst into the penalty area from the left wing and dives like a motherfucker. Andy Madley is looking straight at it and again does the square root of fuck all. How is this fucker still on the pitch?

Half-time and 1-0.  We should be more then one up and they should have 10 men.  It’s hard to imagine Villa being as bad in the second half.  Villa have changed their formation at half time with the so far, disappointing Leon Bailey being pushed upfront alongside Watkins and Saints don’t seem to be adapting to this at all. Tino loses the ball as we try to go forward and that eventually ends with McGinn getting over across from the left-hand side which is headed over by the shit house El Ghazi.  Wake up!

Isn’t it ironic that the shitbag who most definitely should not be still on the pitch, is Villa’s most dangerous player and after a decent build up, he takes aim from the edge of the box but it straight down McCarthy’s throat and he easily shovels it over the bar.

It’s only 10 minutes into the second-half at Ralph has seen enough of us surrendering the initiative and off comes Stuart Armstrong to be replaced by Lyanco and we go to a back three. Saints are still living off scraps at the other end but from one of the scraps, JWP crosses in a free-kick and Adams gets a really good contact on the header and it’s heading towards the top corner but Martinez is a very good goalkeeper and takes off to tip it over the bar.

The half meanders on.  Villa are in the ascendancy in the main but we’re keeping them at arms length.  For all Villa’s huffing and puffing they are not creating any clear openings and Watkins, who I have decided this completely overrated, drags a really shite effort wide from inside the penalty area. The opening had been created by Lyanco and Bednarek having communication issues and both leaving the ball to eachother.

Seven fucking minutes of stoppage time. Piss off. With Broja on for Adam Armstrong, we are doing a better job at holding the ball up as we reach the 90 minute mark. Tino takes a throw to Adams who has the ball in the corner until Mings kicks him in the stomach. The linesman who is 5 yards away and Madley who is 10 yards away both totally failed to see it. It’s fucking ridiculous.  One final Villa attack and Lyanco cleans up and shimmies his way out of defence and that’s it, 3 wins out of 4.  5 defeats in a row for Danny’s Champions League chasing outfit.

Similarly to Watford last week, I find myself wishing that we could put teams away in the first half. We really should’ve done it last week and we really should’ve done it today as well. As it was, we were subjected to a slightly agonising second-half where we barely created anything going forward and just seemed to be under pressure for all 52 minutes of it.  When you look at it in the cold light of day however, once the game is over and you’ve won it, Villa didn’t test Alex McCarthy at all and it was all pretty unscientific, slinging the ball in to the box. They tried hard but ultimately, we have got a defence these days.

After the first 10 minutes, when it looked like it was not going well in the second half, Ralph made a tactical change, replacing the unlucky Stuart Armstrong with Lyanco and everyone’s favourite Serbian Brazilian did a good job in between Bednarek and Salisu.  KWP had another good game at left back though wasn’t as prepared to use his left foot as he was against Watford. Tino in truth, struggled for most of the game and wasn’t bursting forward as much as he usually does. He is going to have games where he struggles a bit which comes from the territory of only being 18. If you expect him to perform brilliantly or at the level that he has been performing in every match, you’re just not being realistic.

JWP and Ori Laugh at the Incompetence

JWP and Romeu in particular, were superb in the first half and it was due to their industry that we created so many chances that really should’ve seen the game won by half-time. I also really enjoyed the first half performances of Stuart Armstrong and Elyounoussi, two intelligent technical footballers who can do a bit of everything.

Our strikers have been one of the issues this season but over the last few weeks, all of them have popped up with a goal and today’s effort from Adam Armstrong was just a brilliant instinctive finish. As the ball dropped, Arma was in the right place and that is an absolutely brilliant strike on the half-volley, giving Martinez no time to set himself, to even think about making a save.  Che Adams had a dodgy first 20 minutes but grew into the game and was unlucky not to score with that header in the second half.

Ralph comes out of this came with a lot of credit. He made the early substitution as detailed above and at the end of the day we kept a clean sheet and won the game so you can’t argue with it. Bringing on Diallo for Elyounoussi certainly helped close the game down as well in the second half.

Today we have to talk about the referee Andy Madley. Like players, referees over the course of 90 minutes can get some things right and some things wrong. Andy Madley got everything wrong. He gave corners when it should’ve been goal kicks, he didn’t give free kicks when people got kicked in the stomach and then of course there was his three card trick with Anwar El Ghazi. Booked for hacking down Tino after 10 minutes with no attempt at going for the ball, let off for hacking down Tino again in identical fashion 10 minutes later and then throwing a massive embarrassing dive to try and win a penalty. El Ghazi can fuck off but Madley can fuck off as well. We have form of course with his shit brother, Bobby Madley who was generally a horrific referee when he refereed our games. It’s hard to believe the Bobby has got a rival for the title of worst referee in his family. Fucking useless.

Are you watching Danny Ings? Your shortcut to the Champions League looks more likely to take you into the Championship at the moment, being only three points above the bottom three having played a game more. It’s wishful thinking to think that Villa will go down but it’s amusing at the same time. They weren’t great and the jungle drums seem to be beating for the head of Dean Smith who is of course the manager who brought Danny to the club. Who knows what players a new manager might bring in or prefer?  By the way, your direct replacement in the Saints No 9 shirt scored a thunderbastard tonight.

Danny Models Villa's New Kit

As for our other former player, Matt Targett again showed his recent form, which was largely terrible. It was almost like he had his boots on the wrong feet the way kept slicing the ball out of play. It’s not so easy when you haven’t got one of the best midfielders in the Premier League playing in front of you for the opposition to worry about.

As I write, Dean Smith has been relieved of his duties which is always a shame, no matter what you think of a manager. It seems to happen quite often that losing to Southampton is seen as the final straw. It happened to Chris Wilder last season and it’s happened to Dean Smith this season.  Nothing comes close to Glenn Hoddle walking out on us and joining Spurs and then getting sacked the day after losing to us the following season.  For what it’s worth, I think the sacking of Smith is harsh bearing in mind that he had to completely remodel the way his team played at very short notice just before the season started. Sure, they have spent some money but they recouped just as much for the sale of Grealish, so I think it’s a very harsh sacking and I’m glad that we don’t operate in that manner anymore. Whilst I never liked Dean Smith much, the Villa fans see him in much the same way as we saw Nigel Adkins, so good luck to him in the future.  They were mid-table in the Championship when he took over and he leaves them in a much better state.

Three wins are four and a trip to Carrow Road and Norwich up next.  Just to be different, they have sacked their manager before they play us so Farke’s off and who knows who’ll be locking horns with Ralph in a couple of weeks.  Maybe Delia Smith knows?  Or maybe she’s pissed again.