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Kickin' It: Can Aston Villa be fun to watch again? A look at the week ahead

Your look at the week that was, the week that will be, and football news and notes for Monday, November 4, 2013.

By Robert Lintott
Charlie Crowhurst

Let's dive right into this. Villa are headed to the "easy" part of their schedule finally. Maybe they'll be fun to watch again!

Just The Facts, Please


 Position W D L GD Pts
Aston Villa 14th 3 2 5 -3 11

Form (Last 5, most recent first): D L L D W

Results Last Week: West Ham United 0-0 Aston Villa (EPL)

Upcoming Fixtures:

  • First Team:
    Cardiff City (EPL) - Saturday, November 9, 1500 GMT, 1000 Eastern

Tracking Villa's Progress

A look at how Aston Villa are doing compared to corresponding fixtures from last season. For a more full explanation of the corresponding fixtures table, see here.

∆ Scored ∆ Allowed ∆ Points
+1 -14 +7

Hey, a boring 0-0 draw was enough to improve our goals allowed and points relative to the fixtures we played last season. Neat! This week's match against Cardiff City is taking the place of QPR's visit to Villa Park last year. The result there was a 3-2 win.

Injuries

New Injuries Last Week:

  • Fabian Delph - Illness (Should be ready for Saturday)

Match Notes

West Ham 0-0 Aston Villa (EPL)

  • One thing that I didn't mention in my instant recap of the match was how atrocious the midfield looked throughout the day. We've talked numerous times about the fact that Fabian Delph has become this team's best playmaker, and with his absence on Saturday due to illness, the midfield was absolutely lost. Paul Lambert was obviously not concerned about playing a possession-oriented match, but the number of one- or two-touch possessions was just absurd. You'd think that with - ostensibly - 5 midfielders on the pitch, Aston Villa would have controlled that third of the field, but that absolutely didn't.
  • The one nice thing to take away from the match was the continued strong play by the defense. Saturday's match was the club's third straight clean sheet away from Villa Park, which is really quite impressive, all things considered. Even with a defense that was depleted thanks to injuries, it really wasn't an area of concern for Paul Lambert's side. That's a nice change from the past few years.
  • And of course, there is the goalless drought. Aston Villa have now gone 375 minutes without scoring a goal. That's absurd.
  • But yet again, we've got a point away from home in a strong defensive showing. Is this Villa team fun to watch right now? Absolutely not. But they are treading water, which is better than what they've done in past years.
  • You can find our recap here. Be forewarned: I was bitter when I wrote it.
  • The WhoScored recap is here.

Looking Ahead

  • This week Aston Villa return to the less-than-friendly-confines of Villa Park. Luckily they get newly promoted team Card... /looks at table. Oh hell. They're above us. Let's root for the upset!
  • Cardiff City opened the weekend 1 point behind Villa, but their 1-0 win over Swansea - compliments of a 62nd minute Steven Caulker goal - pushed them into twelfth with 12 points and a -4 differential.
  • That entire differential is thanks to their play on the road, where they've only scored four goals and allowed eight in five matches. So if ever there was a time for Aston Villa to end their scoreless streak, it'd be on Saturday.
  • We'll have previews throughout the week, and be sure and join us for our open match thread where you can rant and rave until you're happy.

Miscellany

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