Apologies for the brief hiatus in blog posts recently. A change in personal circumstances has meant time has not been on my side. Added to that, a Covid enforced absence from any football over the Easter holiday period meant that I haven’t done much to blog about.
I must make it clear that suffering from the virus over the bank holiday period where football is on the TV from morning til night was purely coincidental for you cynics out there.
And if you thought I didn’t use the fact that I was at home productively you’d be wrong on that matter too. I’ll have you know Scunthorpe have been taken from the bottom of League 2 to Premier League and Champions league winners in just under a decade in the wonderful virtual world of Football Manager (💡maybe I could write a blog about The Iron’s journey)
Back to the real world. Last weekend myself and three other members of the Cornwall Lions made the journey to the East Midlands to see Villa put an end to a four game losing run by playing out a hard earned, well deserved 0-0 draw with Leicester.
I thought it was a good away performance. Despite The Foxes having a vast amount of possession they never really troubled Emi Martinez. The back four of Cash, Konsa, Mings and Young all played well and the only really nervy moments were a couple of James Maddison free kicks.
Villa’s best opportunity of the match came in the first ten minutes when Ollie Watkins who was industrious for the whole match made inroads down the left before cutting the ball back to Leon Bailey who blazed over from 12 yards out. I’m beginning to find Bailey frustrating. I was a big fan of his after watching lots of Bundesliga football on the telly and his cameo against Everton at Villa Park in September was one of the most thrilling moments of the season. He‘s really struggled with injuries since then and he looks like he’s lost something. It’s hard to tell if it’s pace or just confidence, I hope it’s the latter and he can find it again soon because otherwise I worry that his performance against The Toffees may be the highlight of his Villa season as the calls from the stands for Buendia to get more starts gets louder.
A massive bright note for Villa is 18yr old Tim Iroegbunam. The youngster played the last 20 minutes or so of the match and like in his other brief substitute appearance at Brighton he oozed class as well as appearing to have the necessary bite and positional sense to make himself a big challenger for the #6 role in Gerrard‘s preferred midfield system.
I‘m afraid I’ve got to end the Leicester-Villa summary on a sour note.
A Rodgers/Gerrard half’n’half scarf!
I simply don’t have any words.
On my travels again this weekend so I’ll report back sometime next week.
✌️
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