PHOTO CREDIT: Daily Mail
PK’s Premiership/PATRICK KINMARTIN
Life on the Big Four campaign trail continued for Martin O’Neill on Saturday night when another occasion to present the season’s message surfaced.
He walked into the post-match media setup at Villa Park with an artful demeanor as usual, acknowledged the occasion of Manchester United in town with the sense that an increased volumes of media were focused on the podium and then analyzed the 0-0 draw between the two teams from his club’s ambitious new perspective.
“We have now played the top four sides and have lost only once although we were well beaten at Chelsea,” the Aston Villa boss said fairly quickly into his session at the microphone.
“It is exceptionally hard to break into the top four but we are aiming for that sort of thing. The players are improving and have a good confidence about themselves.”
These types of quotes are usually only possible around the league following a scoreless tie when a Big Four member happens to be involved. And the O’Neill-led Villa crusade for Champions League qualification must convince itself such a result against the defending two-time champions in this authentic season is another beacon of strength. Plus, the vibe from last week’s slay of Arsenal at The Emirates Stadium was fresh throughout the area Saturday.
It was not a time to express any frustration that exists about being shut out inside home at Villa Park for the third time this season. That is three times in merely seven home matches — and that now means three times more than last year. See, what many forget about last year’s well-publicized progress for Villa is how, amid it all, they were darn close to enduring the whole way through without being held scoreless at home.
Not until Wigan punctured them for a bizarre 2-0 loss on May 3 — the home finale and Fan Appreciation Day at Villa Park — had the Villans been handed a league shutout in front of their own ticket holders. Only once had the club achieved that feat during a 38-match season, and that came back in 1990.
In the past decade, Villa Park has seen its boys shut out on an array of league occurrences. Successfully turning that tide around last season was yet one more additional reason for the franchise to embrace O’Neill’s presence as the catalyst for its resurgence.
Being offensively unproductive at home has been a grotesque subject Villa had reluctantly digested before O’Neill’s arrival.
During predecessor David O’Leary’s final season in 2005-2006, they barely ended up at an even single goal-per-home match average. The final tally of 20 goals in 19 contests was among the four worst in the league as far as home form was concerned. They were also shut out seven times at Villa Park.
In O’Leary’s first season three years prior, Villa were also shut out seven times at home and finished with 24 goals, placing themselves among the bottom five in the league for home offensive form.
Including O’Neill’s first season in 2006-2007, Villa have been shut out in at least five matches at home in six of the eight full league seasons for this decade. Last season and the 2004-2005 campaign, which was O’Leary’s second year and when Villa were shut out at home only twice, were the two exceptions.
Yet when looking at the actual records of wins, losses and draws, those two seasons for the club don’t even stand out as its best pair of year-long performances at home in the decade’s span.
In 2002-2003, Villa were shut out seven times at home, scored a less than stellar 25 goals there and still ended up with an 11-6-2 mark. With 35 points earned out of a possible 57, that 61-percent fulfillment figure ranks ahead of last season’s 10-6-3 run — 58 percent on the standings points fulfillment scale.
Oddly, those 33 points and 58 percent tally were equaled during the previously mentioned 2003-2004 season that saw Villa land down in the league’s lower reaches for home goals scored. Their record at Villa Park that season was actually 9-4-6 even though they put through just 24 goals.
In both those 33 points/58 percent home seasons, Villa finished sixth overall in the final table. Those six home draws from the final 2004 record line did prove to slow the team a bit more in the overall scheme. Villa had 56 total points in the end whereas as last season 60 was the final number. That showed there was a benefit for having more frequent scoring binges at home (34 goals in the 19 matches.)
Count it as yet another factor in the team’s ardent Champions League push O’Neill will have to monitor closely.
Wrapping up the rest of the Prem weekend…
OWED DRINKS: Manchester City midfielder Stephen Ireland. With a goal and another sterling outing at the helm of the Blue Moon attack in their 3-0 drubbing of Arsenal, the product raised in the club’s farm system deserves some sort of tangible gift since he has lapped all of the new front office’s outrageously-paid recent pickups on the performance track.
OWES DRINKS: All league attacking players. The 15 goals scored over the course of the full 10-match slate were the lowest output of the season, well below the previous mark of 23 produced way back on Aug. 23.
GOAL FULFILLED:.Johan Elmander produced his best — and, it has to be pointed out, still only one of his first — scoring efforts since signing lucratively with Bolton in the offseason when he chested down Jlloyd Samuel’s passes into the box and cracked in a left-foot drive off a full body turn.
LET IT BE: The Mamady Sidibe goal delivering Stoke City its 1-0 win over West Brom was not as rare as much of the postgame press made it out to be; though it was indeed his first goal in a match he also started in this season, the 29-year-old Mali international made 112 starts for the club while down in the Championship the past three seasons, it is just that his mere 19 goals during that span have developed some anonymity.
SAY IT IS SO: That a modern-day Big Four blackout is as easy it looked following the United-Villa draw, City’s 3-0 thump of Arsenal, the Reds’ disappointing 0-0 result at home against Fulham and Chelsea’s scoreless draw with Newcastle at Stamford Bridge. It is the first time in the current 38-match season setup that the league has seen such an accomplishment.
3-POINT FINISH: OK, maybe Newcastle did not have it so easy while holding the Blues scoreless. Chelsea, after all, and mounted 70 percent of offensive possession and outshot the Magpies on goal 9-0. That continues their blistering November pace — during this stretch they have outshot opponents on goal 34-2 in four league matches and just once been forced to settle with less than 60 percent of possession. … There was another illustration about how last year’s top goal scorers are not pushing around defenses now more aware this year during these offensively lifeless matchups. Cristiano Ronaldo, Fernando Torres and Roque Santa Cruz all started and collectively played 272 minutes without scoring. The other name on the 2007-2008 top four scoring list, Emmaunuel Adebayor, remains in and out of the Arsenal nucleus with his nagging injury situation. … Man City have not liked November as much as Chelsea. The takedown of Arsenal was their first win in the three matches to start the month, and now a derby affair with United awaits. Once they get done with their meeting at Everton on Dec. 13, they will have faced three of last season’s top five teams during a four-week span.
