West Ham 1-0 Aston Villa
Sam Allardyce's West Ham may have been the latest team to earn their Premier League berth having come up through the Play Off Final (where they defeated Cardiff City) though, in the eyes of many they are the promoted team with the best Premier League pedigree having a number of players with Premier League experience as well as "Big Sam" at the helm. In Villa they faced a team that have really failed to gain any continuity in recent seasons with managers being chopped and changed on a regular basis, this was the first game in charge for new manager Paul Lambert, who was brought in to replace Alex McLeish.
The first half was a tedious affair with little to talk about until West Ham's captain Kevin Nolan put the Hammers ahead after a controversial move that saw the linesman flag for offside and then getting over-ruled by the referee. Whilst the referee was right, as the ball had flicked off a Villa defender it didn't make it any easier to swallow for the Villa players.
The goal allowed West Ham to shake the shackles and in the second half they looked the much better team and had several notable chances, though they failed to convert any of them. Thankfully for Hammers fans Villa failed to make them pay for their missed chances and aside from a long range shot by new signing Ron Vlaar Villa posed no threat to Jussi Jaaskelainen goal as West Ham kept a clean sheet.
Sam Allardyce will be proud of his players for picking up the win, and whilst this may not have been the football that West Ham fans want to see they will agree the 3 points are what they needed much than an eye catching performance. With a good core of players, including Nolan, Vaz Te, Noble, Collins and Jaaskelainen it'll be a surprise to me if West Ham do flop. Whilst Sam hasn't brought in many new players (though he did re-sign former player Collins) he hasn't the sort of squad that should have enough experience to keep them up.
Whilst I feel West Ham are good enough to stay up I do have serious worries about Villa who on this performance certainly need to sign at least 1 more player as they simply didn't create enough chances. If you don't create chances you will struggle to score. Whilst they have brought in a number of solid players most of them seem to have been defensive players other than Brett Holmann who didn't look 100% today. The lack of continuity at Villa has to be a worry for fans who will be hoping that Lambert can turn the teams fortunes around after last years relegation battle.
Showing posts with label West Ham v Aston Villa. Show all posts
Showing posts with label West Ham v Aston Villa. Show all posts
Saturday, 18 August 2012
Premier League Week 1-Results (Saturday)
So the Premier League has finally kicked off and we've completed the first day of games with a number of surprises. For the sake of ordering the results I've listed them in order of goals scored below.
Fulham 5-0 Norwich City (Duff-26, Petric-41, 54, Kacanilik-66, Sidwell-87 Pen)
Queens Park Rangers 0-5 Swansea City (Michu-8,53, Dyer-63,71, Sinclair-81)
West Brom 3-0 Liverpool (Gera-43, Odemwinge-64 Pen, Lukaku-77), Agger Sent off 58
Newcastle United 2-1 Tottenham Hotspur (Ba-55, Ben Arfa-80: Defoe 76)
Reading 1-1 Stoke (Kitghly-34 : Fondre-89) Whitehead sent off 89
West Ham 1-0 Aston Villa (Nolan-40)
Arsenal 0-0 SunderlandAs you can see we've been treated to some real surprises (West Brom beating Liverpool being the stand out upset) as well as a huge number of goals (19 in total) and just a solitary 0-0 draw.
Below are the figures for the stat freaks, these will be done every weekend and hopefully add something for some fans:
Highest Scoring Games-5 Goals (Fulham v Norwich 5-0, QPR v Swansea 0-5)
Lowest Scoring Games-0 Goals (Arsenal v Sunderland, 0-0)
Top Scorer-2 Goals (Petric, Michu, Dyer)
Penalties-4:
Scored-3-(Odemwinge v Liverpool, Sidwell v Norwich, Ben Arfa v Tottenham Hotspur)
Missed-1-(Long v Liverpool)
Red Cards-2 (Agger, Whitehead)
Total Goals-19 (in 7 games so far)
Fulham 5-0 Norwich City (Duff-26, Petric-41, 54, Kacanilik-66, Sidwell-87 Pen)
Queens Park Rangers 0-5 Swansea City (Michu-8,53, Dyer-63,71, Sinclair-81)
West Brom 3-0 Liverpool (Gera-43, Odemwinge-64 Pen, Lukaku-77), Agger Sent off 58
Newcastle United 2-1 Tottenham Hotspur (Ba-55, Ben Arfa-80: Defoe 76)
Reading 1-1 Stoke (Kitghly-34 : Fondre-89) Whitehead sent off 89
West Ham 1-0 Aston Villa (Nolan-40)
Arsenal 0-0 SunderlandAs you can see we've been treated to some real surprises (West Brom beating Liverpool being the stand out upset) as well as a huge number of goals (19 in total) and just a solitary 0-0 draw.
Below are the figures for the stat freaks, these will be done every weekend and hopefully add something for some fans:
Highest Scoring Games-5 Goals (Fulham v Norwich 5-0, QPR v Swansea 0-5)
Lowest Scoring Games-0 Goals (Arsenal v Sunderland, 0-0)
Top Scorer-2 Goals (Petric, Michu, Dyer)
Penalties-4:
Scored-3-(Odemwinge v Liverpool, Sidwell v Norwich, Ben Arfa v Tottenham Hotspur)
Missed-1-(Long v Liverpool)
Red Cards-2 (Agger, Whitehead)
Total Goals-19 (in 7 games so far)
Premier League Week 1-Predictions (Saturday)
Saturday 18th August
Arsenal V Sunderland (15:00)-Arsenal, playing for the first time since the transfer of Robin Van Persie to Manchester United may be expected to win here with relative ease, especially considering the transfer of players like Podolski however I can't help but think we may see a bit a shock here. I'll be betting on the draw here.
1-1
Fulham V Norwich (15:00)-Despite Fulham playing at home I'm going to favour the away win here. The signings of Snodgrass and Turner will really bulk up the Norwich line up. Whilst Fulham have added the very good Hugo Rodellaga I expect he will take several weeks to get into the full swing of things.
1-2
QPR V Swansea (15:00)-Swansea have lost not only their manager but also their talisman in Joe Allen, they have however managed to acquire an extremely talented player in Michu. Sadly for Swansea however I can't see them getting anything from this one. The QPR squad has been strengthened massively since the end of last season and with this in mind I'll be backing QPR.
2-0
Reading V Stoke (15:00)-Going into this bout it could, genuinely a very close match, however with Pogrebnyak now amongst the Reading squad it's almost impossible to bet against Reading. Stoke are never an easy team to beat though they are a flawed tea.
2-1
West Brom V Liverpool (15:00)-Liverpool have arguably the most frustrating team for any fans in recent years as their team repeatedly fall short of expectation. With Bredan Rodgers in charge I know some people are massively excited, sadly however Rodgers seems to have done the same thing Kenny Dalglish did, he's over paid for players. Thankfully for Liverpool here West Brom haven't really improved their squad over Summer and I think Liverpool's players will get up for Rodger's first Premier League game in charge.
0-2
West Ham V Aston Villa (15:00)-West Ham's return to the Premier League seems to have been met by a lot of people predicting them to go down. Whilst they have improved their squad with Modibo Maïga and the re-signing of James Collins they may not have improved quite enough. Villa, a team I'd have predicted to struggle have added some brilliant players and I whilst they may not click straight away they will be a very good team when they start to click.
1-1
Newcastle V Tottenham (17:30)-The late kick off sees last years 4th placed team playing the 5th placed team in what promising to be a very interesting match up. Going into this match up you have to have a lot of questions-how will Spurs do with Harry and how will they do with Villas-Boas? How does Anita fit into Newcastle? This is by far the stand out match of the day and I expect it to live up to expectation
2-3
Arsenal V Sunderland (15:00)-Arsenal, playing for the first time since the transfer of Robin Van Persie to Manchester United may be expected to win here with relative ease, especially considering the transfer of players like Podolski however I can't help but think we may see a bit a shock here. I'll be betting on the draw here.
1-1
Fulham V Norwich (15:00)-Despite Fulham playing at home I'm going to favour the away win here. The signings of Snodgrass and Turner will really bulk up the Norwich line up. Whilst Fulham have added the very good Hugo Rodellaga I expect he will take several weeks to get into the full swing of things.
1-2
QPR V Swansea (15:00)-Swansea have lost not only their manager but also their talisman in Joe Allen, they have however managed to acquire an extremely talented player in Michu. Sadly for Swansea however I can't see them getting anything from this one. The QPR squad has been strengthened massively since the end of last season and with this in mind I'll be backing QPR.
2-0
Reading V Stoke (15:00)-Going into this bout it could, genuinely a very close match, however with Pogrebnyak now amongst the Reading squad it's almost impossible to bet against Reading. Stoke are never an easy team to beat though they are a flawed tea.
2-1
West Brom V Liverpool (15:00)-Liverpool have arguably the most frustrating team for any fans in recent years as their team repeatedly fall short of expectation. With Bredan Rodgers in charge I know some people are massively excited, sadly however Rodgers seems to have done the same thing Kenny Dalglish did, he's over paid for players. Thankfully for Liverpool here West Brom haven't really improved their squad over Summer and I think Liverpool's players will get up for Rodger's first Premier League game in charge.
0-2
West Ham V Aston Villa (15:00)-West Ham's return to the Premier League seems to have been met by a lot of people predicting them to go down. Whilst they have improved their squad with Modibo Maïga and the re-signing of James Collins they may not have improved quite enough. Villa, a team I'd have predicted to struggle have added some brilliant players and I whilst they may not click straight away they will be a very good team when they start to click.
1-1
Newcastle V Tottenham (17:30)-The late kick off sees last years 4th placed team playing the 5th placed team in what promising to be a very interesting match up. Going into this match up you have to have a lot of questions-how will Spurs do with Harry and how will they do with Villas-Boas? How does Anita fit into Newcastle? This is by far the stand out match of the day and I expect it to live up to expectation
2-3
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