Villa-Reading
Before the need for any analysis of this match becomes almost entirely moot, it seems appropriate to slip a quick entry about Wednesday's Aston Villa vs Reading match in.
Before the match, I was expecting Villa to win relatively comfortably. From the first matches of the season for both teams, I felt that Villa's strong back line and Reading's clumsy one would be the main factors contributing to Martin O'Neill's first three points in B6. And, for all of three minutes, my theory was not disproved.
It was at this time though when Reading's Irish striker Kevin Doyle was in an area of space the size of the Pridnestrovie Moldavskaia Respublica, and unsurprisingly dispatched the header with ease. 1-0 Reading, and for the next twenty five minutes or so, it only looked like increasing. Erk.
But things turned on around twenty-five minutes, and two disallowed goals later, Villa got a deserved penalty after the hapless Ibrahima Sonko tripped and stumbled on a clean through on goal Luke Moore. Inadvertent? Perhaps. But it denied Moore a clear goalscoring opportunity, and the sending off was the inevitable result. A cucumber cool penalty by Angel made it 1-1, and at half time this was the score. The feeling was that it wasn't a question of if Villa would score again, it was a question of how many.
Yet, to Reading's credit, it was far from a walkover. Despite having mucho possession, a new pioneering form of Horizontal Football proved entirely unsuccessful, being as it was a complete waste of time. Observe.
Somehow though, a bit of normal football came, Barry scored, and a deserved 2-1 lead - and ultimately win - came from it. The game I think said more about Reading than it did Villa - they were a very difficult team to play against, and Villa didn't carve too many clear chances out of the game. Also, it was difficult to gauge how good Villa actually were in having all this possession as Reading were down to ten men for most of the possession hungry period.
The opening three games of the season are proving an interesting acid test for Villa, offering three very different tests. A draw at Arsenal has proved that, on a good day, O'Neill's Villa can cope with England's best teams, and defeating Reading suggests that there is little realistic threat of relegation. Tomorrow's game against Newcastle should indicate just how far Villa can progress. Defeating Newcastle would suggest that a top six position might just be within reach, whereas a draw would suggest a solid mid-table finish. I'm expecting a solid 1-1 draw tomorrow.