Two points were squandered by the young lions at Villa Park against Fulham. Villa took a deserved lead, but an awful moment for Fabian Delph saw Fulham claw back into the game in a lively encounter.
Villa’s only change from the Stoke game was that N’Zogbia came in for Agbonlahor who was ruled out through injury. It was a cagey opening as both sides had plenty of possession in between the boxes but the final ball was lacking by each. Fulham got an early blow when Damien Duff pulled a groin and was subbed in the 9th minute.
Fulham began keeping more of the ball and Villa became a little frustrated. The lads on the field seemed to get buoyed by the 19th minute applause for Petrov and dominated the remainder of the half.
Schwarzer made 2 superb saves from N’zogbia and Lowton being urged to shoot every time he had possession by the home fans hit a shot a little wide after an eerily similar corner clearance by Berbatov to Adam’s last week. This time the pass would have been the better option as he was never as balanced. Benteke got his foot on a cross, but with no time to angle his foot it blazed over.
The second half almost saw a goal 15 seconds in when Benteke won possession almost from kick off. He found Weimann who took the ball a little close and then saw his left foot shot touched away by Schwarzer and just off the foot of Bowery, hoping to grab his first Villa goal. N’zogbia got the loose ball but missed badly. It was a little greedy by Weimann as Bowery was in a great position, but it was par for the course for Villa players who seemed intent on being the glory boys instead of playing as a team.
Fulham had a good spell of pressure and Berbatov hit the post, but he should have been flagged offside. Villa had been flagged continually in the first half for much closer decisions than this one.
After taking what Fulham had to offer Villa went down and scored. A good move down the right Hangeland cleared but only to N’ZOGBIAand he curled it past the keeper for 1-0. For the next several minutes Villa pressed for a second and Fulham was reeling. N’zogbia again found himself through the heart of the defence, but his support had all isolated themselves wide left of the box, leaving him to try a tame shot.
Fulham came back. A corner that was going to be easily covered by Baker or Guzan was instead diverted over them and into the net by Delph., despite Westood’s best effort to clear. It was Villa’s turn to start panicking and Fulham threatened to take the lead.
Lambert decided changes were needed and the next 10 minutes Sylla, Holman and Bent replaced N’zogbia, Bowery and Weimann. It seemed Villa had gone from creative, young and enthusiastic to cumbersome, old and slow in a matter of moments. The looks on Zoggy and Andi’s faces said it all.
Fulham decided to pack up and take the draw. They invited Villa on and tried to hit on the break. From another clearance the crowd again urged a Villan to shoot and groans ensued when Bennett actually listened to them and tried to drill a low shot from 45 yds. Again, more selfishness from Villans, a pass would have kept pressure up. Delph should have made up for his own goal. Benteke had the attention of two defenders and the ball squirmed out to the midfielder who just had to keep his shot on target, but he was off balance and sent the ball high, high into the Holte end. I believe he had time to control the ball, collect himself and place the ball with his right foot.
Another nice ball from the right found Benteke, who turned his defender beautifully and with the whole goal to his left and Bent perfectly poised alone and onside 3 yds from goal he smashed a powerful shot near post and into side netting. Villa huffed and puffed but couldn’t get close again.
I had Villa drawing at Stoke and beating Fulham by 2 and finishing safe. So the opposite should mean we should still stay up, but we have to get 5 points in my opinion from the remaining games. So a win against Sunderland and draws at Norwich and Wigan are musts.
Next week is Man Utd, so the goal should be to just stay healthy and try to play well.