Aston Villa 0 - West Bromwich Albion 1

Date: Saturday 19th September 2015 
Competition: Barclays Premier League
Villa:
4.0
WBA:
7.3
Myhill 6.8, Dawson 7.8, McAuley 7.3, Evans 7.4, Brunt 6.9, Morrison 7.7, Fletcher 7.8, Yacob 7.0, McClean 6.7 (Olsson, 94 6.3), Rondón 7.4 (Lambert, 90 6.0), Berahino 7.6 (Gardner, 67 6.2)
Unused subs: Lindegaard, Chester, McManaman, Gnabry
Manager: Tony Pulis 7.8
Scorers: Berahino (39)
Referee: Martin Atkinson (West Yorkshire) 6.3
Attendance: 36,321   Home Fans 3.8   Away Fans 8.6

oshawabaggie:

Any kind of win over Villa is brilliant, but it's refreshing to be able to talk about some real improvement in our performance. To keep it in perspective, this was a woefully weak Villa side, but we still had to execute and execute we did.

From the start we showed much more attacking intent and there was a balance about the team not apparent in recent games. I put this down to the inclusion of Mozza and Berahino, both of whom could hold the ball in forward positions and go at defenders. Rondon looked much less like Brown Ideye and more like a record signing. He could have scored with a lunging header in the first minute and had a couple of sharp long range shots which gave Guzan trouble. Fletcher looked up for it today and had a lot more involvement further up the pitch.

Once again the defence was solid as a rock, with Evans showing great composure. One weakness is our speed, or lack of it, with balls hit over the top. Mac is particularly slow and we were nearly made to pay when Agbonlahor beat him and centred for Gil, whose shot was stopped by Yacobs family jewels. How long before Chester is given a run alongside Evans I wonder? Berahino showed, with his deft touch, why he is so critical for us. We need plenty of points in the bag before January.

Let's hope we take this more balanced approach into the next game.

Mark Koppel:

'The Vile' 0 'Pride Of The Midlands' 1

This was a most satisfying result on three main levels:

Level 1. Berahino proved that you sell your best player (especially a striker) at your peril. So to those who said sell him he's trouble, would you rather we didn't beat the Vile today? Without him I think we wouldn't have a got this magnificence result this afternoon.

Level 2. Pulis proved to his critics that he knows what he is doing. He saw that Villa are vulnerable, and told the Team to go at them today, which they did first half.

Level 3. Tim Sherwood proved he is an emotive, inexperienced people manager, who cannot cope when things go wrong. Thank god we didn't appoint him because when the chips are down, he just makes things worse.

Player Ratings:

  • Myhill 6.5 Would have got more but had very little to do.
  • Dawson 7.5 Gets better and better, especially going forward. Sublime pass with the outside of his right boot second half down the wing.
  • McAuley 7 - Very strong in the air and no long hoofs forward. Got too tight to Gabby first half, who then spun him and set up their best opportunity.
  • Evans 7 - Just like McAuley, won all his battles in the air, and one superb sliding tackle in front of the Baggies Faithfull first half.
  • Brunt 6 - I think Villa missed a real trick here not targeting him, especially after he got booked
  • Yacob 6 - Some great blocks including taking one in the Buster Gonads to cover up for McAuley's mistake. But passing forward was again a problem.
  • Morrison 7 - Makes the midfield so much better. Nice to hear from Pulis after the game on how much he appreciates him.
  • Fletcher 9 - MOM. Considering he played the first games of the season with lead in his boots , this was quite a turnaround. Combined superb defensive midfield duties with great surges forward at pace and taking people on. Even got into shooing positions on occasions.
  • McClean 5 - Still not sure why he is preferred to Calum McManaman.
  • Berahino 9 - Created the goal by being in a position no one else would have found. And with a flick to deliberately change the direction of the ball.
  • Rondon- 7 - Massive effort, troubles defenders, and twice the player of Brown 'No' Ideye. Still not convinced though he will score many goals making it even more important we hang onto Berahino.

Subs:

  • Lambert - Did try to close someone down, unsuccessfully though, in the 5 mins he was on the pitch.
  • Gardner 6 - Combined well down the right and was the correct outlet to waste time.
  • Olly - Also came on the waste time with just 10 seconds to go. The result was that the Ref adding on another minute!

In the end only our second league win at Villa Park in 36 years. Hope you enjoyed it half as much as I did.

Brendan Clegg:

It's always sweet to beat the Villa and I have calmed down a bit from last week. But I cannot buy Pulis's post match comments about it being the only week he's had these players and the sideshow of the transfer window.

It is not a coincidence that switching to 4-5-1 with Morrison in the centre made us so much better - anyone watching us for the last 4 years knows this is the only way we can play.

What frustrates me enormously is that we should be playing this way every game - we played at a high tempo and gladiatorial Rondon set the tone by rampaging, harassing, pressing and running his legs off again, with Morrison, McLean, Saido and even Fletcher being brave enough to back him up. It's how we beat Chelsea last year and is the benchmark.

In truth, this was a very poor Villa showing and I think we could've given them a real drubbing today had McLean and Saido been played on the opposite wings and/or McManaman had been on the pitch.

Whilst the balance was much better - the fact both Saido and McLean were on their wrong side often resulted in our promising break opportunities resulting in disappointment. I think even our fortuitous goal demonstrated this.

I am not blind to the reasons - Saido did a great job on blocking Hutton going forward whilst giving him problems the other way and McLean's efforts in both directions against the more dangerous Amavi provided his best performance for us. I just think both players would have done as well defensively on either wing and would have been far more creative on their respective natural sides and we'd have scored 2 or 3 more goals.

Pulis as we know is a man happy to keep things marginal though - and his ability to reduce football matches to margins and be on the right side of those margins is, in fairness, unquestionable.

Despite their being 2nd best, there was only ever 1 goal in it and Villa arguably had an equaliser harshly chalked off.

Still it would be churlish to dwell on these points - I will happily eat humble pie all season if we from now on keep to this formation and approach.

  • Myhill - 6 Not a lot to do but very reliable when called upon.
  • Daws - 7 Another very respectable performance from our flying centreback.
  • Gmac - 7 Another clean sheet for the old warrior and apart from one moment when Agbonlahor got away from him he was solid. Was great to see that when Agbonlahor tried the same trick later in the game the big man read it like a book. Still learning!
  • Evans - 7 Another very impressive performance showing huge leadership. Clearly hungry to prove Utd shouldn't have let him go. Pleasantly surprising.
  • Brunt - 7 Let's be honest, he is starting to look like a left back and the clean sheets don't lie.
  • Yacob - 6 Married some great breakup play and short passes with some idiotic fouls in dangerous areas and sloppy possession.
  • Fletcher - 7 Game management, strength and reading of play were all there today along with some horrendous passes too. Improved.
  • Morrison - 7 Quality wise I don't think he was at his best but in terms of speed, pressing, covering the pitch and instigating breaks he was pivotal.
  • McLean - 7 I'd be interested to see how many miles he ran today - a machine in that respect and at times showed good pace and some sort of threat.
  • Saido - 7 The kid's touch, awareness, speed of thought and pace over 20 yards mean he can play anywhere across the front positions. I'm not sure he meant the goal but he also has that goal scoring nack. I completely get why people think he has to play at all costs but in this position I think we have others who can do the role better. Great work rate again.
  • Rondon - 7 Another huge performance. Carried a threat but the main thing is he is a very mobile beast of a man who chases after everything and gives every sinew, never allowing our opponents to play from the back - like a strange cross between Danny Dichio and Lee Hughes. Perfect for a club like us even if he may not be prolific.
  • Gards - 6 Usual graft when he came on although his introduction reduced our threat and put us under pressure a bit.
  • Olsson - 10 He hates the Villa which is enough for me.