Aston Villa v Swans | Vital Football

Aston Villa v Swans

K

keith margam

Vital Football Legend
Despite the shock home defeat to bottom club Ipswich in our last home match the away allocation tickets are sold out for Villa a week next Saturday.
It seems the Jacks enjoyed the attacking football on show last Saturday and are clamouring for more. Although one of the easier of away trips it’s still a great effort by our fans.
We will have to face a Villa team with a new manager in place for his first game, after Steve Bruce was fired, so it will be more difficult to get points there as their players will be out to impress.
 
Villa’s last two matches Millwall 2 Villa 1, Villa 3 Preston 3
Last six form Guide -
A Villa DWLDDL 1W 3D 2L 6 Pts
Swans DLDWDL 1W 3D 2L 6 Pts
 
Highly respected Dean Smith, whose done wonders at Brentford, appointed Head Coach at Villa with John Terry as his assistant, first match Swans at home.
 
We could be facing two ex- Swans players in this match -
Striker Kevin Oghenetega Tamaraebi Bakumo-Abraham (Tammy Abraham), who had an unsuccessful season long loan period with us last season from Chelsea.
Left-back Neil Taylor, who moved to Villa in Jan 2017.
 
Aston Villa’s ground capacity is 42,682. The number of tickets sold so far for the Swans match is 35,000. They have decided to open the Trinity Stand Upper for the first time this season due to heavy ticket demand. It was closed when they got relegated from the PL in 2016. There are plans to extend the ground to 60,000 if they get promoted.
 
It seems that Aston VIlla have financial problems similar to the Swans. High earners on long contracts are draining club resources and the owners are having to source loans to alleviate a cash flow crisis. Villa reportedly owe up to £11m in fees for transfer signings. Here’s a sample of players wages -
Neil Taylor £30,000
Scott Hogan £35,000
James Chester £30,000
Henri Lansbury £40,000
Mile Jedinak £50,000
Micah Richards £50,000
Not as bad as the Swans highest earner Bony though, reported to be on £120,000 a week!
 
Aston Villa match sold out then, and I’ll be one of our lot going up there hoping we continue our good away form.
It’s certainly a great show of support by Villa fans for Dean Smiths first game in charge.
 
I’m at a loss to figure out what Potter is going to do next. Why is he still experimenting with the team, why doesn’t he know his best starting eleven?
Well it was five changes for the Tinkerman today at sunny Villa Park. No Mulder in goal again to everyone’s chagrin, with debutant centre half from the U23’s Cian Harries coming in to a back five formation and strangely leaving Spurs loanee centre half and experienced Championship player Baker-Richardson on the bench.
The overloaded defence was soon pierced within 8 minutes and no surprise it was another of our ex players Abraham who scored with a simple header.
In an abysmal showing first half we couldn’t pass the ball without Villa intercepting it, our sparse midfield was non existent, and we could easily have been two or three goals down as Villa sliced through them like butter.
We were better second half once the ineffective Fer (back to normal) went off and Carroll, James and Grimes came on and we had our chances to equalise but snatched at each one. Villa were no great shakes yet we just could not score a goal.
One win in seven and in the bottom half of the table doesn’t make good reading and another defeat made for a miserable journey home.
 
A photo widely shown in the press of the goal yesterday shows VdH’s feet firmly on the ground in front of Abraham as he rises to nod in with Rodon challenging but behind him and no chance of getting the ball.
It shows the confusion in defence through the change in formation leaving Abraham with an easy header and Nordfelt rooted to his line.
The statistics gave a false impression with 53%-43% possession in our favour as the passing was mostly sideways and backwards until the latter stages of the match and the much needed substitutions.
 
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