da dobrowin： The biggest injustice of the weekend was surely Aston Villa’s gallant, undeserved defeat at the hands of felled champions Manchester City at the Etihad.
da roleta： Christian Benteke was clearly onside as he ran through on goal and was taken out by Joe Hart only a couple of feet from the City line. The Belgian looked for all the world like he was going to score before being brought down, but when the whistle went, it was for a free kick to City as Benteke was judged to be offside.
As if that perversion of justice wasn’t enough, the world contrived to punish the hapless Villa once more before the final whistle as City went up the other end and scored through Fernandinho with the game deep into stoppage time.
City could have been out of sight before half time, though. In fact, they could have been out of sight even before the 20 minute mark. So it was Villa’s start that was the difference between the two sides at the weekend. Had they not conceded after three minutes the game may have finished much differently.
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This too came down to rotten luck. An inocuous backpass to goalkeeper Brad Guzan seemed benign enough. But the sight of Sergio Aguero chasing him down with 48,000 Manchester City fans baying for blood seemed to spook the American into a panic. He tried to play a pass which was never really on, seeking out his right back with a square ball. But he managed to mishit it terrible, and squared it right to Sergio Aguero who was grateful for the assist.
It was a bad moment for the Villains in the middle of a few weeks in which they have seen some very good moments. They’ve managed to win enough games to make themselves confident of avoiding the drop, Sherwood has managed to get his strikers to score goals again, and the most impressive feat was surely the FA Cup semi-final win over Liverpool. Again they came from behind, and this time they won not only the game, but also a place in an FA Cup final.
The truth is that this bad moment came at a very important time for Villa. Hull beat Liverpool to move ahead of the midlands club, Leicester and Sunderland both have games in hand just below them and could also move in front with wins. Villa would be pulled back into the relegation quagmire with only four games of an intense and enthralling relegation battle remaining.
But sometimes you have to take the rough with the smooth. But then sometimes the rough can be the price you pay for the smooth.
Villa would perhaps have looked past the Man City away fixture as a chance of points. Instead focusing on home games against Everton, West Ham and Burnley as their best chance of the points to keep them in the league.
And they’ve certainly been playing with enough confidence to take maximum points from these games, and nine points from their last four games would surely see them safe.
In fact, the Guzan mistake at the weekend is a clear sign of the confidence that Villa have been exuding.
Instead of simply hoofing the ball clear and ceding possession, the American goalkeeper decided to try to keep possession by passing to a team mate. He got it dreadfully wrong and then looked shaky for a little while later, but that sort of confidence is not something that Sherwood will want to stifle in his team.
It was a mistake that led to a goal and possibly cost his team the game – though there’s surely more blame attached to the officials for Villa’s defeat than to Guzan – but Sherwood must surely be happy enough that his team have the confidence to try to keep the ball, even at the home of the erstwhile champions.
Six months ago, Guzan would have booted the ball into row Z, as all fearful keepers would with Aguero bearing down on him. Villa would still have lost the game, though. City would have found another way to break down a Villa team totally devoid of self-belief. This time Aguero was gifted a goal, but only because Villa thought they could outplay the champions. And that in itself is impressive.
Sherwood won’t mind too much about the defeat. As the man himself said when speaking to the BBC after the game: “Play like that and get relegated? You’re having a laugh!”
He knows the confidence his team have, not just to try things and play football properly, but also to stand up and fight the Champions on their own patch even when 2-0 down.
Villa should have won this game, but that’s not really their battle. Their battle is against the teams around them, and they’re still very much alive in that particular war. They look to have a confidence and self-belief that they didn’t have before Sherwood took over, and if they stay up this year that’s what will see them through.
It’s not the mistakes made when trying the good things that haunt teams when they go down, it’s the times they were tentative and didn’t give it a go. Sherwood’s Villa certainly won’t go down thinking ‘what if?’ But on the basis of the last few weeks, Sherwood’s Villa won’t go down at all.
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