English Premier League – Half time Review: Stoke City versus Aston Villa
Aston Villa and Stoke played out an eventful first half at the Britannia Stadium, which is Stoke City’s home. For Villa this was the first time they were playing under their new manager, Gerard Houlier. Houlier had previous experience in English football with Liverpool as the Frenchman won the Carling Cup, F.A Cup and the UEFA Cup with them back in early 2000s.
Villa had a pretty wretched start to the season as they failed to qualify for the group stages of the Europa League after blowing their lead against Rapid Vienna in the qualification rounds of the European club cup competition. In the Premier League, they lost by six goals to nil in their second match to Newcastle United. However, Villa have had a couple of wins in the Premier League so far, they defeated West Ham and Everton at Villa Park.
Conversely, Stoke City have failed to show up with their form in the league so far. They lost their last Premier League match to the English Champions Chelsea by two goals to nil and have been under criticism as despite signing several key players in the summer transfer window, their squad chemistry has been absent in the Premier League. Tony Pulis’s side started with Kenwyne Jones, their new recruit from Sunderland up front as the striker had recovered in time to feature for the Potters. Alongside Jones was J. Walters, behind these two centre forwards, Etherington, Whitehead, Delap and Wilson took their spots in a four man midfield.
At the back, Shawcross and Huth played at centre back and right back respectively while Faye and Collins played at sweeper and left back respectively. In between the goal posts, Sorenson took his usual spot as Stoke’s first choice goal keeper. Alternatively for Villa, Gabriel Agbonlahor returned from injury to play as their main striker whilst Young was deployed as a secondary front man. In midfield, Petrov and Reo Coker were supplemented in central midfield by the width of Downing down the left and Albrighton down the right.
Defensive duties were entrusted to Collins, Young, Dunne and Warnock as Brad Freidel was Villa’s goalkeeper on the night. From the start it seemed that Stoke were setup to play on the counter attack despite the fact that they were playing on their home turf. Within the first fifteen minutes, Stoke broke forward in attack and Jones was played in front of the Villa goal by his team mate Wilson but the former Sunderland man couldn’t apply a clinical touch to it as Brad Freidel blocked the shot on goal to deny Stoke the lead.
Stoke again were on the move as Kenwyne Jones took a surprisingly good shot from a volley from around twenty five yards off Villa’s goal, the shot did trouble Freidel as it caught the American off guard. However the shot was parried away as Aston Villa gain escaped trouble. As the half went on, Villa gathered pace and got their first goal through Downing’s header. The ball was crossed in from the right by Agbonlahor and Stewart Downing placed his header perfectly in the 36th minute of the match to give Aston Villa the lead.
Villa almost doubled their lead in the 41st minute of the match as Young connected with Agbonlahor’s lofted pass but the winger headed the ball wide from a very close range. Just before the half came to a close, Villa had another golden opportunity to fortify their advantage, this time Downing failed to convert his chance as Stoke’s suspect defending was let off the hook once again.
At the half time whistle the score was 1-0 to Villa, who had plenty of chances to increase their one goal lead. It remains to be seen whether the missed opportunities will come back to haunt Houlier’s team or not.
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