Picking up from where I left off 2 weeks ago, when we managed to beat Bilbao and maintain our Euro 100% streak and mask our domestic ineptitude.
I wouldn't expect the 2-1 win to change our domestic fortunes much, especially since it's Chelsea up next. By far the most envied squad around and it would take a lot from my squad to hold out against them (given their current form), let alone achieve an upset. Nevertheless I was still looking for an improved performance but...
Chelsea 4-0 Aston Villa
Away at Stamford Bridge was always going to be hard but this is atrocious. I started with the 4-2-3-1 against Chelsea's own 4-2-3-1, mainly so I could play both Romero and Sanchez as DMs against Chelsea's potent front 4. Or 6 if you count Fabregas and Ramires.
Mourinho's side put us on the back foot from the start but we held out until the 16th minute when Cuadrado beat Flanagan and charged down the right flank with Costa running through the centre. Romero was chasing after Costa, and Vlaar was the last man. Bad situation to be in. Vlaar closed down Cuadrado but that meant freeing up Costa for an easy tap in.
Vlaar then picked up an injury after Oscar's tackle and had to be subbed off in the 27th minute, with Bianchetti coming in. Bianchetti's key weakness is his lack of pace and that showed throughout the rest of the match.
The back four were terrible in this match and I won't go into too much detail but it was another Tottenham match all over again. In the 79th minute, Bianchetti went in hard on Costa from behind and therefore got sent off, but not before leaving the striker with strained ankle ligaments and out for 3 weeks.
The next match against Sunderland should get better. Hopefully.
And just to prove I'm not faking the wave of injuries...
And this is just players from the first team squad.
There's a 2 week international break before the Sunderland match and while half of my first team is away on duty, the rest will be without action for a while so I decided to arrange a friendly with Clanfield to boost morale and maintain match fitness. The second string side, managed by my *** Man Joe, beat Clanfield 5-0, with some like Patric, Flanagan and Roberto putting in solid performances.
Then came the Sunderland match. Which we failed to win.
Aston Villa 1-1 Sunderland
I reverted back to our 4-3-3 while Sunderland set up a 5-4-1 as expected. Patric was out with a gashed head in training so he had to sit out of the match while Bacuna replaced him. I decided to go with a midfield trio of Sanchez, Romero and Roberto with Pereyra sitting out. Sunderland was supposed to be easy opposition. Supposed to be. Benteke led the attack with Grealish and Zivkovic as Inside Forwards.
Roberto had to be taken off with an injury after Rodwell's tackle, but fortunately post-match he turned out to be fine. So Pereyra got to come on and join in the fun.
Wickham put Sunderland ahead after firing in a cross past Vlaar, Okore and Romero who were in the box. However, Zivkovic put us back in the game with a little magic of his own, shooting in off the crossbar to make it 1-1. The rest of the match was simply Villa missing their shots despite efforts to work the ball into the box.
We only landed 5 out of 23 on target, which says a lot. Sunderland's 5-4-1 was just too difficult to break down, at a time when my team was severely off form.
Fenerbahce 2-3 Aston Villa
We returned to our Europa League campaign in an away match against Fenerbahce. I started with Barreca and Flanagan as wing backs, Vlaar and Okore in defence, Delph, Pereyra and Romero in midfield and Fierro as a Poacher with Zivkovic and Savitskiy as Inside Forwards. As usual, Leali gets to keep goal in Euro games.
Fierro put us ahead after his one-two with Zivkovic was poorly cleared by Kadlec back into his path and he made no mistake from inside the box. Later, Fenerbahce's keeper Yumakogullari took a free kick from outside his penalty area, but Pereyra won the header, passed forward to Fierro, who switched it to Zivkovic on the right flank. The Serbian youngster took his chance from just past the halfway line and Yumakogullari couldn't make it back in time to prevent us going 2-0 up.
But Fenerbahce made a superb comeback after the break, first breaking on the counter after clearing our corner kick and then skilfully passing their way into the box for Emenike to turn and shoot past Leali. Barreca, Okore and Savitskiy were having sub-par games so I subbed them for Patric, Clark and Ward-Prowse respectively. That means Flanagan now switches to the left while Zivkovic and Ward-Prowse played as wingers supporting Fierro.
Fortunately, my side never gave up and in the dying moments of the game we poured men forward on overload and pounded our opponents with shots until Zivkovic produced yet another moment of magic by scoring from outside the box.
So we maintain our impressive record in Europe as we return to England in search for a win to break our poor domestic run of form.
Everton 2-1 Aston Villa
More or less the same team, with Guzan replacing Leali and Sanchez coming in for Delph. We went behind after Baines' cross found McCarthy at the edge of the box and he volleyed it in past Guzan. Things got worse as Zivkovic had to be taken off after John Stones' tackle left him injured, although post-match he was fine.
We spent much of the match chasing the game until Savitskiy managed to equalise in the 80th minute. There was a corner kick, a scuffle, and I think an Everton defender tried to clear the ball but it bounced off Savitskiy into the goal.
We tried to hold on the the draw, switching to highly defensive contain play and sitting very deep. However, we eventually overextended when trying to counterattack and in the end were countered ourselves with Baines playing a high ball over our defence to Lukaku who made a diagonal run into the box and laid it off for McCarthy to score. Again.
It was a pretty even match all around and conceding a goal like that in the 90th minute due to pushing forward rather than sitting back (which were the instructions) is just downright frustrating. Fierro had a poor game and Benteke came off the bench to also have a poor game.
Aston Villa 2-2 West Brom
Still in search for a win, I decided to shake things up and try out the 4-1-2-1-2 with both Fierro and Benteke playing. It seemed ideal - a big target man and a small fox in the box. Pereyra was at the tip of the diamond while Romero and Roberto were the box to box runners. Sanchez anchored the midfield with Vlaar and Balanta in defence, while Flanagan and Lowton roamed the wings as Complete Wing Backs. Yes Lowton. I decided to bring him back into the side despite him being unhappy. The squad was stretched thin, and playing poorly so I was pretty desperate.
We went ahead in the 14th minute when Romero finally put the ball in the back of the net after we had tried a fair number of shots in succession. But West Brom equalised through Mulumbu's 30 yard scorcher, and then went ahead with Saido Berahino's header from Ravel Morrison's cross.
Benteke eventually scored a similar goal from Lowton's cross in the 90th minute to ****** a draw from the jaws of defeat but I don't see myself playing a 4-1-2-1-2 any time soon. We were simply too exposed on the flanks.
So that extends our winless Premier League streak to five games and the fans are getting frustrated. There's talk that I'll get the sack. It's frustrating for me too, but I need to find a way to change the club's fortunes. The league is still the number one priority and I need to get things sorted before it's too late.
Aston Villa 3-5 Arsenal
I went with the 4-3-3 against Arsenal's 4-4-2. I went with Guzan, Lowton, Vlaar, Balanta and Flanagan at the back while Sanchez, Romero and Pereyra formed the midfield trio. Benteke led the attack with Savitskiy and Zivkovic as Inside Forwards again.
We went ahead with Balanta's header from a corner kick bouncing into the net past Szczesny. Then Pereyra's shot bounced off Dragovic into the net again. We were 2-0 up at half time. Amazing.
After the break, we conceded one when Vincent Aboubakar scored from the edge of the box. But Fierro, who came on for the ineffective Benteke, scored a similar goal in the 64th minute to maintain the 2 goal buffer. And then, somehow, we just cracked. Aboubakar beat Guzan again at the near post to make it 3-2. We switched to a more defensive mentality as Arsenal began to mount a comeback. Oxlade-Chamberlain equalised for them on 75 minutes after Arsenal flooded our box with no less than 6 players and we failed to competently clear the ball. Shortly after, Cazorla beat my defenders to Ox's cross and made it 4-3 for Arsenal, while Ramsey wrapped up the game with a 25 yard shot which beat Guzan.
So there. The defence failed terribly even though our attackers were good. Vlaar had a poor game but his replacement Bianchetti was the same. Romero was average but Delph came off the bench to put in a worse performance. Guzan was a thorough disaster throughout.
I really don't have much to say about the game. I just hope the run ends soon.
In other news, the U21s are still going strong. :S
Sorry to hear about that injury. The game has a knack of doing that to you. Really annoying especially when they're just about to hit a good run of form.
