It was important that Villa did not lose their opening fixture at Fulham, for Alex McLeish, and his players didn’t let him down. In a largely uninspiring, but hardworking game, Villa took a point home. Villa will point to debutant Shay Given as the hero as he made 3 or 4 superb saves.
After 3 minutes of watching the teams exchange high balls to one another, Fabian Delph got a hold of the ball. Showed great control and calmed Villa down. From that point on it was mostly Villa throughout the first half.
If there is a silver lining to losing Ashley Young this off season, it is that Villa now seem to operating one winger on the right and Heskey and Agbonlahor rotating in some strange hybrid midfield, forward and winger all at once on the right. Getting back to my point, this has seemed to give Villa more strength in the midfield as evidenced by the way Petrov and Delph completely bossed the middle. Or, maybe it is because Fulham’s Danny Murphy and Etuhu don’t frighten anybody.
Villa did control the first half, quite comfortably, but Fulham had the 2 best chances of the half. Riesse should have marked his debut with a goal after losing N’Zogbia down the left and running on to a through ball, he slammed the ball high into the Villa fans. Zamora later had a shot that was punched out by Given and scrambled clear by Petrov.
As in the pre-season, Villa had a lot of pretty possession, but no punch up front. Bent was offside almost every attack and the crosses into the box, were not potent, except for an N’Zog cross that Collins couldn’t direct on goal.
The second half started brightly for the home side and on 47 minutes went ahead. Or I should say, should have gone ahead when Zamora appearing slightly offside hit a volley that had the fans behind the goal cheering goal, only to see Given make a remarkable 1 handed save to deny the former West Ham man. It was all Fulham now and Given made two more great stops and Villa were just handing the ball straight back to the Fulham defenders. Martin Jol had his team pushing up to put pressure on the Villa defenders and it was causing turnovers.
Finally, their attacking spree sputtered out and Villa went back on the offensive. N’Zogbia wasted a great chance by holding on to the ball too long and he passed the ball to Senderos with Gabby straying offside. It might have been a good idea to let Zoggy attack the left wing, to take advantage of Aaron Hughes playing out of position on the left. Instead, Albrighton was sent on in his place.
While not a dirty match, the ref produced 6 cards. All but Petrov’s were probably deserving. Gabby was done for dissent, Heskey for a silly foul and Dunne for a tackle from the back. Murphy and Etuhu were booked for Jol’s side. Murphy for an elbow to Delph’s face and Etuhu for a little revenge tackle on Petrov.
Gabby’s booking for dissent was borne out of frustration. The ref was ruining a disappointing game with silly petulant free kicks on both sides. Stopping the game every time anybody fell over.
After N’Zogbia’s departure, Bent made a lovely cross into the middle. But, Bent wasn’t there to bury it. Bent almost got on to the end of Warnock’s centre, but the now large breasted Schwartzer cut the ball out with a low one handed grab.
Albrighton snatched at a shot, that had teased the Villa fans into thinking it was the winner, into the side netting to the delight of the home fans.
The bright spots of the game for Villa, was the lovely play of Delph. Breaking up attacks, showing plenty of ability on the ball and a good eye for a pass. He was handicapped by the width of Fulham’s pitch as were all the Villa players, who could not hit long passes out wide as they could at Villa Park.
Also, Petrov was very good and Heskey gave Villa a good performance, although he needs to try some left footed shots, if he’s going to be on the leftside with defenders between himself and the goal. Twice he spurned opportunities. The first, he tried to place the ball with the outside of his right foot, taking all the sting out of the shot. The other time he refused to shoot and passed instead, ending the attack.
Warnock linked up well down the left and Young was good as were Collins and Dunne.
The biggest question of the day was….What did A-MaC think of the Villa fans rendition of “We all know that the Blues are going down”?