Premier League Basement Battle
Aston Villa 0-0 Stoke City
Much has been made of Villa’s inability to score goals this season, with only two in their last four league games and only twelve from fifteen games in total. This apparent lack of finishing prowess was apparent today as Villa played out a goalless draw at home to Stoke, despite Lambert using three different strikers plus Stephen Ireland in a vain attempt to break down the stubborn Stoke defence. But then Stoke are always an incredibly hard team to score against, and they’ve kept eight clean sheets this season, more than any other team, and this is a decent result for the Villa, especially considering the extent to which Villa dominated the game, with the lions share of possession and managing ten times more shots than Stoke.
Villa’s defence is starting to look solid as well, with this their third clean sheet in four games, and only one goal conceded against QPR. As long as Villa continue to defend as well as they have, there will always be a chance to win games.
Darren Bent
The debate over the future of Bent at Villa rumbles on, making his first appearance for Villa since October today, but he appeared to justify Lambert’s decision to leave him out for the last few games, as Villa went flat as soon as he came on. Benteke’s burgeoning partnership with Agbonlahor has been key to some of Villas positive results of late, and Bent just does not fit in with that.
Southampton 1-0 Reading
Massive result for Southampton, who continue to get results against the teams around them, and that could be key to their survival in the Premier league. They've also tightened up their defence compared to the start of the season, which had been a major cause for concern.
Reading are beginning to look cut adrift of the rest of the league, now four points from the dotted line, and I can't see a way back for them at the moment. Whilst they put on a show against United last weekend, they continue to be beaten by the teams around them; defeated by both Villa and Southampton in the space of two weeks. The game against Sunderland on Tuesday is crucial, lose that and they will find it very hard to come back.
Wigan 2-2 QPR
QPR need wins, and they need them soon. Now eight points from safety, and again failing to beat a team that they need to in order to stay up. The more games that they fail to win against bottom half sides, the more pressure will be put on to much harder fixtures.
Wigan are getting results when they need them at the moment, and they look pretty stable, two points above the relegation places and only four points off 12th.
Sunderland 1-3 Chelsea
Things have taken a wrong turn for Sunderland in recent weeks, and they have completed their slide into the bottom three today, on goal difference. Massive game on Tuesday, if they lose that, O'Neill will be in trouble.
