McGrath: We ARE improving

September Report



Aston Villa had a awesome pre-season, not a bad start but it was not until this month when they showed there steal! Yes they won just once this month but in Manchester City and Hull City, they found two sides who had played completely at the top of there game.

First up was Huddersfield, who were bottom and with Villa in such good form, you would have expected a comfortable win. It was very comfortable but the result says different. Goals from Gabby Agbonlahor and Dorin Rotariu were enough to see The Villans through the match with Huddersfield grabbing a very late consolation goal.

Next up was an absolute classic! Aston Villa/Manchester City matches have been entertaining now for the last six encounters with including this match, a massive 30 goals have been scored. It was Man City that came off best this time though, coming through to win 5-4. Villa though got all the credit, last season they would just give up when behind but this season they have a never say die attitude and it nearly paid off as goals from Volland (x2), Rotariu and a Stones penalty caused a grandstand finish when Grealish smashed the ball against the bar for City to hold on to a slender but very valuable win.

Hull City were also just outstanding in there 3-1 victory against Villa too. I remember seeing Tom Huddlestone at Spurs on occasions run a match and he did it for Hull in this match as he set two up and scored one himself on the way to Man Of The Match and giving Hull there first victory. Villa actually played well but on this occasion they were beaten by the better side.


Rondon is scoring well this season with 4 in 6 after his big money move from Spurs

The last game of the month was against Everton and The Villans will be wondering what if after this match. Salomon Rondon gave Villa the lead on the 14th minute at The Ricoh Arena with a crisp left footed drive that should never have gone in at the near post and the Villa controlled the game perfectly. Ramognoli, Vlaar and Stones dominated Lukaku and Remy but the goal came from the most unlikely, but likely sources for Everton as Gareth Barry pushed back the years to score his first goal of the season after wonderful play from Kevin Mirallas to give Everton, rather unfairly a share of the spoils.

The Manager's Opinion

I thought we did well this month, the results might not show it but we are still in the top reaches of the EE Premier League and the fans love the football we are playing. We are no longer scared of the Man City's and Man Utd's and this was shown after the match when City's manager, Leonard Slutskiy thought we would be an outside bet for the last Champions League place. Are we ready for that yet? I do not think so but we are not far off now. We were unlucky against Man City and Everton and were beaten by the better side in the match against Hull, who incidentally played like Champions and we are only moving up the table.

Villa Player Of The Month

This was a very difficult one to choose because this month so many players had played well. I am going to give it to Yohan Cabaye, who although has been quiet on the scoring front this month, has dominated the midfield for us and that is important for the CM's to do as we have such an attacking four, whoever they would be up top.




With the top 9 separated by just 6 points, the league early on looks tight. Arsenal, as usual are top but do not expect that to last and with Chelsea just behind, they are already looking threatening and are also unbeaten along with Arsenal and also Everton, who nearly were defeated last time out at 6th placed Villa. West Brom and Stoke are in the top 4 early on this season with United 8th, City 9th and Liverpool 11th. Huddersfield, Wigan and Fulham are in the bottom three.

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Merson: Villa Can Win The Title!

Former Aston Villa player and now BT Sports pundit Paul Merson thinks that Aston Villa can launch a shock title challenge as after 10 matches they are lying in 4th place just six points behind new leaders Chelsea. Merson has been really impressed with The Villans since the start of the season, They have shocked a lot of people except me said Merson. I have to say that I had my doubts after two relatively 'boring' season for Aston Villa but Paul McGrath had his plans and they are really working now, I mean yes it helped that Mario Plattner bought the club out, but he still needed to identify the players that he wanted.

He did it to perfection, there was a lot of people laughing behind McGrath's back when he signed Salomon Rondon for £39,500,000 but he has showed the faith that McGrath has put in Rondon by returning 6 goals in 11 appearances this season in all competitions. Other players signed including John Stones, Steven Caulker and Yohann Cabaye have been inspirational in McGrath's 5-2-2-1 formation that he plays.

Aston Villa could well defeat the odds here and have a great title challenge, which would be a shock challenge but they are going to be the shock of the season this season in my view.

October Review

It was a pretty good month for Villa with 3 wins and 1 draw. The draw, against Queens Park Rangers was a shock result as Villa were hot favourites to win the match but with John Stones missing a penalty after Venezualen Rondon was fouled but that was all forgotten just before half time when Volland finally got his goal he was looking for in a Villa shirt. He took the ball off the impressive Cleverly and hammered it home. The penalty miss though come back to haunt Stones though when Giaccharini got the goal for Q.P.R and the one that they deserved to pick up a deserved victory.

Then Villa hit another winning streak by first completely overwhelming Arsenal in the first half where Micah Richards struck two stunning goals with his foot they were sandwiched between two goals within the minute, with goals from Grealish and Rondon giving Villa a huge 4-2 victory over the team that were top.

Then wins over Burnley 1-0 and a 2-1 victory over West Bromwich Albion gave Villa a awesome finish to the month. The Burnley match was dominated completely by Villa and Grealish got the deciding goal but the W.B.A match, Gus Poyet was not happy because he thought Villa were lucky, well they were but you have to get lucky every now and then you have to get lucky and they did.




So Arsenal are no longer top after Villa thrashed them, bringing there goal difference down and with Spurs and Villa right on the leaders coat-tails with Stoke still performing well this season. Man City and Man Utd have had a very, very slow start to the season along with Liverpool. Huddersfield and Wigan are the bottom two and it is a blanket for the rest of the sides.

Villa Player Of The Month

Jack Grealish is getting used to this award now. Rondon and Cleverly were close to winning it but the Young Player Of The Month Grealish has now won this so many times it could even be changed to the Jack Grealish Villa Award!

McGrath Signs New Deal

In a summer where Aston Villa tied down the best players on long term contracts and also spent big on the 3 or 4 players that manager Paul McGrath believed were needed to complete for the top 4 in the Premiership, it was McGrath himself that signed a new deal now.

The Irishman, 56 years old had 3 years left on his £68,000 a week deal but has now signed a one year extension worth £72,000 a week and also includes bumper bonus's if he can win Villa either the league or the F.A Cup. Former managers and players along with the current players are delighted that he has signed a new deal.







So pundits think that this could be the year that Villa can make the top 4 too with some of the signings they have made, they could be the shock side to come through the midfield this season!

100 Matches for McGrath End In Success

When Paul McGrath took over Villa two years ago they were in dissarray. They had the makings of a good young side though but once Lerner really tightened the purse-strings they were always going to battle against relegation. Having to sell, Benteke to Bayern for £25,000,000 and good young players like Ashley Westwood and Leandro Bacuna so he could get in Luc Castaignos and Gino Peruzzi really paid off when McGrath kept them in the Premier League and the now Chairman Mario Plattner bought the club, things slowly started to change.

Paul McGrath, however decided still to stick with the young stars that he was looking for. Plattner backed McGrath to the tune of £135m. With players like John Stones, Allessio Romagnoli and Dorin Rotariu. These three players are just an example of the sort of players that Villa and McGrath are looking for, they are really now going places which also shows this season with Rondon, Sirigu and Caulker moving to Villa this season.



The match itself was against Swansea City and they were determined not to lose the match this time. Aston Villa had not beaten Swansea in four attempts but within the first half Villa had sturck the bar 3 times but scored twice. Salomon Rondon then came alive in the second half and added two goals to his tally, meaning he has now got an impressive 9 goals in 13 matches this season and Villa moved into the top four with the win but surely, surely they are not going to throw down a title challenge are they?

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Villa Make Inroads

Aston Villa have had an amazing month again this month but it is Salomon Rondon and Kevin Volland took centre stage as both of them got a hat-trick this month and they were ridiculously good too. The first match of the month though was not the way that The Villans thought it would go though because they were in such good form they got a bit lackluster and with Stoke also flying high they defeated Aston Villa 3-2.

But Villa however, got there mojo back in the match against Swansea which was reported on earlier and was ofcourse Paul McGrath's 100th match in charge of the Midlanders. They then went on to stomp all over Newcastle with Volland following up Rondon's hat-trick the week before with one of his own.

Jack Grealish deserves a mention again as he and Volland are providing very good quality from the wings which is helping new signing Rondon bang the goals in, hence keeping Agbonlahor and Luc Castaignos out of the side. Newcastle actually want Jack Grealish but manager Paul McGrath says that he will not sell any of the 18 man squad named for the match.

If Newcastle honestly believe that Jack (Grealish) would want to move DOWN the table then they have another thing coming plus I doubt they could afford the £55,000,000 price tag it would take for us to even consider selling him! Newcastle would not be able to afford it either but he is also very happy here and wants to win trophies with us and no one else

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Volland Scored a hat-trick this month, just like Rondon

After the month that saw Villa and Stoke consolidate there position in the top 6, Villa are in 4th, only 9 points behind Chelsea and they have to play The Blues in December, in what is a punishing schedule of Manchester United, Liverpool, Chelsea and Tottenham in the space of 17 days with West Ham and Wigan also in December in what could be a pivitol month for Villa and will also decide whether they can make a shock title challenge or as some pundits think will mean they drop down the table just like Stoke are predicted too.

The player of the month this month is Kevin Volland. He got the award in the Premier League, just edging out Salomon Rondon into second in a month where Villa really showed there steel. The question will now persist on will Villa keep this up or are they going to drop out, lets wait and see.