Rubén Cousillas seems like a nice enough bloke. Just like the man to whom he is assistant, Manuel Pellegrini, Cousillas looks as if he'd be splendid company over a nice glass of red, discussing highbrow entertainment of some description and possibly a spot of light philosophy. However, if for some reason there was an assistant managers' Royal Rumble, in which all the No.2s in the land are thrown into a ring and made to duke it out for the title of Premier League's Hardest Right-Hand Man, then only a fool or his mother would stake significant currency on him emerging victorious. Particularly if his opposite number this evening has a significant say in matters.
Roy Keane's beard has become a character in itself this season, people apparently thoroughly confused at the concept of a man's chin, being left to its own devices, could spontaneously sprout hair, hair that will remain until either clippers or razor is applied. Still, if it's the beard that is making Aston Villa play quite well so far this season, then hats off to the facial hair, because at the start of the season it looked like their ragtag bunch of no-hopers would somehow be made worse with the addition of an even more ragtag bunch of bigger no-hopers. Joe Cole, Kieran Richardson and Phillipe Senderos reads like a list of 'Oh, are they still playing?' rather than a collection of players who would help revive the fortunes of an underperforming team.
Still, their start to the season hasn't been that good. They've only actually scored four goals in six games, and they're in the middle of an absolutely frightful run of fixtures, their last two games having been versus Arsenal and Chelsea, and then of course there's today, when Manchester City are welcomed to Villa Park, their coats taken and asked to remove their shoes so as to not get muck on the new carpet. City themselves aren't exactly whooping it up as one might have assumed they would, having made heavy weather of beating Hull last weekend, and left themselves firmly behind the black in the Champions League.
It's the defending that seems to be the problem, with Eliaquim Mangala's performances at present resembling Tyler Durden-levels of split personality, if instead of forming an underground boxing club Tyler Durden wore a beret and hurtled down a hill at high speed on rollerskates, as well as the customary rarely-mentioned ricks by Vincent Kompany. Pellegrini at least seems aware of the problem:
One of the things we did last year was improving clean sheets. We had a second half of the season with a lot of clean sheets but the same thing as I said about other things, at this moment last year we conceded more goals. But of course we cannot concede five goals in three [Premier League] games. We scored seven and we draw two games and won one, but it's too much.
Quite so, Manuel. No flies on this lad. We shall see if he's got that nailed in the time to come. Teams to follow presently.
Posted by Unknown on Saturday, October 4, 2014 - Rating: 4.5
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