If Villa was prepared to face Wigan yesterday it didn’t show. The optimism exuded by Paul Lambert now looks like a massive under-estimation of a very capable Wigan side whose decent performances of late have not been rewarded by their endeavors.
To compound the misery of another major loss was to have it done in front of former rival Trevor Francis, who was surprisingly complimentary, of the fans loyalty, 33 000 to see a struggling side in wretched weather deserved a pat on the back.
On the field, Villa moved Lowton into Herd’s position, Herd to the injured Baker’s role, Bennett to left wing-back and Lichaj to right wing-back. It was pretty much the same way we got decimated by the last two teams in another order. Midfield saw Bannan, Ireland and Holman, with Weimann and Benteke rounding out the side
The action began inside the first couple of minutes. A Wigan midfielder seeing Di Santo isolated 1 on 1 with Lowton must have been delighted and decided against Wigan’s passing game instead going the direct route. The result was Lowton, badly positioned, put his arm up to stop the Argentine in the box (illegal) and the ball struck his outstretched arm (also illegal). Understandably, the ref didn’t want to give that call unless 100% sure, but it wouldn’t matter because more shoddy defending from the corner allowed Wigan an easy goal. Lichaj failed to pick up Ramis, Benteke unbelievably ran under the ball and it was 0-1.
Wigan then dominated with 78% of the ball. The ref failed again to award a penalty when Ireland took Maloney’s leg away on the bye-line. This began a strange refereeing game by Kevin Friend who allowed fouls to go unpunished, uncalled even, gave free kicks when there was no foul and awarded throw in almost every-time to the wrong side. However, none of it changed the outcome. Wigan still won handily.
Villa did come back. We even enjoyed a spell of 75% possession! But, there was no end product. On boxing day, David Pleat suggested that while Ashley Westwood was a very good passer, his thought process on the ball is too slow for this league right now. Watching this, we could extend it to almost the entire team. When Villa have possession on the edge of the area, the ball is moved too slowly allowing defenders to comfortably find their positions. There was no threat to score, but at least it was encouraging.
Early second half, Villa started as they had against Spurs. Again there was no threat. Villa had a decent breakaway, but Ireland stopped, looking for support and Wigan got 9 players back killing the attack.
Finally, Villa succumbed and it was to an odd player to pop up. Boyce is not really known outside of Wigan for his highlight reel stuff. He linked up well with Kone for a one two that left 3 defenders for dead and shot low inside the post. You can’t help wondering if the Villa teams’ tightness has not extended to Guzan too, as I feel 2 weeks ago he would have got a hand on that one.
Six minutes later, Kone evaded a challenge from Lowton that would have been weak in the conference league and rounded Guzan to add a third. Kone would get 2 more one on one’s, but he should have lobbed the first and was offside on the second.
Villa enjoyed another spell of possession before Wigan closed out the game with some ole passing. The scary part was that it seemed Benteke shut down after the 3rd goal. The Belgian was the main culprit on the first goal and his poor passing early on for the opening 15 minutes set a bad tone. Then he had a brilliant 45 minutes where he won every header in the air. After the 3rd goal, he seemed to stop going for anything, while the rest of the Villa team was trying everything to get a consolation goal, he wouldn’t even jump for a ball.
Villa fans streamed out after the 3rd goal, but a lot stayed and still got behind the team when they showed a good attitude, another point that Francis made. Am I starting to like this person? However, the booing at the end was directed at the club, not the players. This is not their fault. If Villa does not have a new face ready to start the second league game of the New Year, the fans will really start to turn on management and ownership.
The passing, the first touch and vision of this Villa team is reminding me of the last season under O’Leary, but this is much worse.
It is hard to pick out a man of the match, but as bad as he was as a sub against Tottenham, Bennett showed a big improvement against Wigan, whose fans showed how fickle fans can be as they started chanting Martinez’ name again a week after murmurings of unrest were happening. Let’s hope we are able to be just as fickle, starting Tuesday.