Author: Alex Othon
I'm Alex Othon; a Brummie living in London, and a realistic Villa fan. My first game was at Villa Park in 1992 against Crystal Palace. No one was available to take me except my extremely reluctant older sister. We won 3-0, and they had us hooked from that point onwards. Follow me on Twitter @lovespud83 and thanks for reading my articles and leaving any comments - always really appreciated.
Aston Villa is entering the final third of the Premier League season just a single point above the relegation zone. Whilst it could be much worse, it’s going to be a rollercoaster couple of months before we are either mathematically safe or doomed to drop back down to the Championship. There are plenty of reasons why we should be positive about survival though. 1 – McGinn to return There’s no doubt that Aston Villa have missed John McGinn’s presence in the middle of the park. To be honest, I think the diminutive Scot was kind of out of form as…
Aston Villa’s striker shortage situation appears as if it isn’t going to be resolved until the very end of the transfer window, with a whole host of names still being thrown around in the media. Things should improve now the arrival of Mbwana Samatta from Genk has been confirmed. But one player who certainly won’t be contributing any further is Jonathan Kodjia. The Ivorian striker has now officially completed a move to Qatari side Al-Gharafa for £2.5 million, bringing an end to his three and half year stay at in B6. UNFAIR CRITICISM Kodjia’s last couple of months at Villa…
Aston Villa’s humbling 6-1 loss at the hands of a rampant Manchester City has predictably seen a wide range of opinion come forth from supporters and pundits alike. It is no wonder people are starting to question Dean Smith’s backroom staff, including John Terry. The growing ‘Smith Out’ brigade is becoming more prevalent, though a more reasoned reaction is still the majority vote at the moment. For me, there is a degree of acceptance that City can tear any team apart as they did to us. But, whilst the result may not define our season, the performance may well do…
With the first week of January behind us, the transfer rumour mill is well and truly in overdrive and only set to get more and more speculative. AC Milan striker Krzysztof Piatek is one name doing the rounds! Targets which were given a degree of credibility such as Michy Batshuayi and Olivier Giroud have already fallen by the wayside, thanks to Danny Drinkwater’s move to Villa Park which rules out the Chelsea striking duo joining the midfielder in B6, on loan at any rate. Wesley’s untimely injury has seen plenty of less-than-flourishing forwards thrown into the mix though. Everton’s Cenk…
Aston Villa’s worrying slump has well and truly shattered any remaining hopes that the club would be sailing towards a comfortable mid-table finish this season. At the halfway point of the campaign, we are lucky to be as high as 17th, on 21 points. The good news is that the current state of the league means that any sort of run of form could propel Villa up the table in no time at all. After all, Arsenal are only 6 points ahead of us and we’ve seen how teams such as Southampton and Everton have given themselves breathing space in…
Dean Smith is currently overseeing an Aston Villa side riding the crest of a slump which represents the toughest period of his tenure so far at the club. A fiendish run of fixtures has certainly not helped in recent weeks. But that aside, performances, which had generally been encouraging despite defeats, have now fallen off a cliff also. Villa’s summer recruitment was positive and encouraging and each signing being heralded as an important part of the jigsaw. For me, I look at the players we have, and I do think we should be doing better than we are. There’s no…
Whilst no game after just 12 matches should be deemed as a ‘must-win’, there was certainly an added pressure on Aston Villa’s shoulders on Monday night to ensure they took all three points against Newcastle United. A tough set of fixtures before the international break saw the Villans record three straight losses. Competitive showings against the best two teams in the land in Liverpool and Manchester City gave way to a lacklustre performance against an improving Wolverhampton Wanderers side as injuries began to suddenly mount up; in truth, the break came at a good time for Villa. Much needed points…
Yet another international break seems to have come at a good time for Aston Villa. A third straight Premier League defeat at Wolverhampton Wanderers last weekend felt almost inevitable with key injuries before kick-off. And with a couple of other wounded soldiers falling by the wayside during the first half, there is suddenly a mounting list of bodies on the Bodymoor Heath treatment table. As well as time to overcome injuries, a couple of weeks rest will hopefully also rejuvenate several others who seemed strangely lethargic. However, one man who did appear energized was Trezeguet. And I’ve been more and…
Another brave Aston Villa effort against one of the Premier League’s big boys had an all too familiar ending last weekend as a quickfire double from Liverpool handed them a late 2-1 victory. Losing any game in the depths of injury time is totally gutting. However, conceding late goals, and ultimately points, is becoming an unfortunate hallmark of Villa’s season. For some supporters, there are plenty of positives to take. But for others, there is a growing concern that lessons are not being learnt. Liverpool Taking the Liverpool result on its own, I can’t help but see the positives. It…
A little over a month ago, I wrote a piece about which focused on Jack Grealish. We had just endured the first international break of the season and with Tyrone Mings earning his first international call up, there was a lot of discussion about just how far off Grealish was from joining him, and Tom Heaton, in the England squad. Fast forward a few weeks to the next international break and Villa supporters were again having the same conversation about Grealish’s chances of a call-up. The lacklustre defeat against the Czech Republic added to the belief that the Three Lions…