Let's be honest; I don't want to write this and you don't want to read it. I don't think I've ever been more disappointed by a Villa result than I was today. Less than a year ago these two clubs were battling it out for a place in the Champions League and today Aston Villa did not look like they belonged on the same pitch as Manchester City. It was a shocking performance by all involved and Villa were absolutely fortunate that the result was not even more of an embarrassment. Manchester City had 62% of the possession and all of the chances. Games like this are going to happen from time to time with such a young squad but that doesn't make them any more pleasant.
Lots of people have decided to take to doomsaying and calling for the manager's head and I don't much have the energy at the moment to spend on refuting their claims. We've still got half the season to play with a much, much easier run of fixtures and at the moment we're ahead of the drop zone. If you honestly think that this squad won't better their first half performance with a healthier and more experienced squad against a far less daunting run of competition well then fair play to you.
We'll be looking back at the first half and taking a look ahead at the rest of the season over the next few days but for now I'd prefer to forget about this result and this club for a few hours. This season was a gut-wrencher before it even began and today's game put a very fitting cap on Aston Villa's 2010. It would be tough for 2011 to be much worse and I am more than ready to put this year behind us.