Welcome to 2022

As we enter the new year I am jumping straight into the action at the first chance I have. The second day of the year and I’m already back at the football and this time it was a game that I knew I had a good chance of enjoying. The results from the first day of the year were not encouraging though as they had all been won by the away teams. When you add to that the results that Brentford had been getting in December, they hadn’t scored since the 10th of that month when they came back to win against Watford. That is only 3 games though in all competitions with the cancelled game against Man United in that time period.

Brentford were going to have their work cut out for them though as they were up against an Aston Villa team who have been on a true resurgence since Steven Gerrard took over. Villa have only lost to the top 3 teams in the league since Gerrard came in and it looked like a tall order for Brentford to become their fourth conquerors. Villa have looked a class team since Gerrard came in and he has brought his impressive revival skills to another huge British club. I always thought he would after the insane turn-around he achieved at Rangers and it’s lovely to be proved right. I was hoping that this game would provide a speed-bump for his revitalisation of Villa though.

This whole game was weird for me though as I was hoping to see Brentford win and turn their form around, but this meant rooting against the team managed by my boyhood hero. I was struggling the whole match with this dilemma all match and it was made even worse than it could have been due to the return of Mr. Gerrard to the side-lines after time isolating with the C word. To see my hero in the opposition dugout was such a strange sight and it took me most of the first half to get used to it.

The match was also an important one for both sides as they are only separated by 2 points in the table, with a win for the Bees taking them above Villa and a Villa win taking them into the top half of the table. To add to this it was also set up to be the return of Ollie Watkins to face his old team at their home stadium, not the Griffin Park Stadium he used to play for them in though as they moved to their new stadium in the season after he made the move to Villa Park. All these factors combined made this match the most surreal experience of my life in football stadiums.

One of the surreal factors was taken out of the equation early on though as Watkins was not included in the Villa squad for the match and I don’t know why this is, but whatever the reason for his omission was it removed some of the drama from the match and robbed Watkins of the heroes return he would have been given by the Bees fans. It was not only Watkins missing for the visitors though as they were also without Tyrone Mings, Axel Tuanzebe and Marvelous Nakamba.

Villa were not alone in missing normal starters though as the Bees were without Mbuemo and Rico Henry in their squad. It was Villa however that stuck to the new tradition of away teams naming players in their squad who aren’t mentioned on the programme, just the two this time though and they were substitutes Iroegbunam (number 47) and Feeney (59). Neither of them entered the fray at any point though so perhaps taking the time to jot their names down on the programme was wasted, particularly as it took 3 tries to ensure I spelt Iroegbunam’s name correctly. With those matters all taken care and the traditional pre-match rituals taken care of the teams were ready to get the match underway.

The first 5 minutes of the match were not all that exciting on the pitch as both teams felt their way into it, so the Villa fans took the opportunity to educate the home fans on a few facts about their club and its’ players. Well actually only one of their players as they revealed in their chant supporting their right back Matty Cash that he is Polish. This is certainly something I was unaware of and as there are no longer flags next to the player’s names on the programme, like there used to be in seasons past. The second memorable Villa chant highlighted their European Cup Final win over Bayern Munich in 1982, their only European Cup success but still one more than Arsenal, Spurs and Everton have combined. Though in fairness to the north London rivals they have both at reached the final at least.

Anyway, the first on pitch action of the match occurred in the 9th minute of the match when the host’s Mathias Jensen mis-timed his jump as the ball flies across the area and land at the feet of a Villa player on the edge of the box, who skies his effort well over the bar and behind for a goal kick. The first chance of the match for the visitors and no more than their early play deserved as Brentford’s form from the end of 2021 continued.

Villa had another gilt-edged chance to take the lead present itself to them in the 12th minute as Ivan Toney lost the ball in midfield and gifted possession to the visitors who fed the ball through to Danny Ings on the left side of the box and with just the keeper to beat, he fired his shot into the side netting as he tried to win the battle at the near post. He made up for that miss just 3 minutes later though when he was once again fed the ball on the left side of the hosts box. This time he drilled his shot across the keeper and into the net near the far post to open the scoring for Villa.

The goal was a team play of sheer beauty and nothing more than their play so far in the match deserved. They had been in control of the match from kick-off, managing to keep possession from the start and they had been probing to find ways through the deep defensive set-up of the hosts long before they found the way through to Ings for their goal. The Villa fans celebrated taking the lead by letting off a flare in their end and at that time in the match it looked like they were celebrating the first of many as they were truly on top in all the important battles in the match. The hosts badly needed to improve if they were to have any chance of taking anything from the match.

The hosts had their first chance of the game in the 19th minute as they finally got a small bout of possession and broke up the pitch on through Canos on the left, but just as they got into space for the first time the ref whistled time on their attack. The ref made this whistle up due to a Villa player being flat on the pitch. I didn’t see the incident that put the Villa player in that position and whilst it certainly seemed like the right call by the ref, to stop the game, it was also awful timing in the middle of the Bees first attack of the match.

It was also the Bees last attack for a while as Villa regained the control they had been enjoying all half. Villa even came one block away from doubling their lead just 4 minutes later. Their corner to the back post was headed towards goal from 10 yards out only to bounce of the back of another Villa player and away from danger. This was a comical screw-up from my perspective, but from the Villa perspective it was a wasted chance that they would come to regret later in the match.

Later in the match almost meant just 2 minutes later as Kortney Hause in the Villa defence came inches away from scoring the own goal of the season. He lets a chip fly from the far left side of the box which the keeper has no chance of getting too and which landed in the side netting, to the relief of both the Villa players and their fans. It would have been a brilliant piece of skill if it had ended in the back of the net and an equaliser that the hosts would not have deserved.

In the 28th minute Villa got in behind again as a 30 yard pass over the top, on the right, for their winger to run onto had Jansson beaten completely. Luckily for the hosts Pinnock was sprinting over from the left side of the pitch and got their in time to prevent the cross from coming in. Villa regrouped though and worked the ball back to McGinn on the edge of the box. Unfortunately he ballooned his shot over the bar, but the ease with which Villa were opening up the home defence every time they attacked was worrying and it looked like only a matter of time before the floodgates opened for an easy Villa win. Brentford had been utterly awful so far and would need to seriously improve to have any hope in this match.

They had their first meaningful chance a minute later though as they finally woke up and realised they were in a football match here. Wissa wrestled the ball free on the left and got running. He worked the ball to Jensen on the left side of the box who got the first shot on the board for the hosts. He volleyed the ball just over the top and sparked the hosts to life. A real end to end football game emerged from the previous one-way Villa traffic and the first act of this new game was for the teams to trade yellow cards for cutting out each others attacks.

The hosts then won a freekick just inside their half, in the 32nd minute, that they attempted to take quickly and catch the Villa players napping. They managed this and it look like Toney had fed the ball through to a free running Wissa in the box, only for the ref to pull them back to retake the freekick. In their haste the hosts had taken the freekick from yards forward of the spot of the original foul, which meant the ball was in the wrong half of the pitch and made it easy for the ref to spot. Not the best mistake for the hosts to make, but it at least showed the new energy and will to play that they had discovered minutes earlier.

Wissa then ballooned a shot over the bar from 6 yards out in the 34th minute before Villa went on the attack again. This time though it was Villa’s turn to have an attack whistled off when they were in a promising position. They had the ball running free through the centre to Ings when the ref blew them up and gave a freekick to Brentford for a foul that he had seen in the way that Villa had got the ball. Even as a Bees fan it looked soft, but on the football pitch the ref’s word is law and so it was now 1-1 in whistled off attacks for between the teams.

In the 39th minute the football took a back seat as a set to developed in the Villa box between Toney and Hause. They threw each other to the turf, but it looked to be nothing more than handbags and it also looked like one of those incidents that is 6 of one and half a dozen of the other. A yellow a-piece and a drop ball seemed the way forward to me, but the ref instead gave a freekick to Villa and no cards at all. This made no sense to me but as I have said before, the ref’s word is law.

After those two moments of parity between the two teams the hat-trick of parity was reached as the Bees achieved parity on the scoresheet too. Their equaliser came in the 42nd minute through the excellent Yoanne Wissa. The ball was well worked on the Bees’ left as Roerslev and Wissa played a 1-2 to bypass the Villa midfield and then Roerslev fed the ball to Wissa again. He advanced to the edge of the box before unleashing a driven shot into the bottom left corner of the goal. Martinez in the Villa goal stood no chance of stopping it as the Bees got themselves back into the match. It was the hosts first goal in more than 3 weeks and a team move of sheer beauty that got them back into this match.

The hosts almost had a second with the final attack of the half as Canos and Toney exchanged passes on the Bees left flank, before Canos unleashed a quality cross to the penalty spit. He was expecting Toney to be there and he would have been if he had continued his run, but instead Toney hadn’t moved since his last pass to Canos and Villa were able to clear the ball away. The first half ended with the scored at 1-1 and whilst the hosts were happy with that, the visitors will have gone in at half time knowing that they should have been ahead after their dominance of the first half hour.

That early Villa dominance and the later resurgence of the Bees must’ve left both managers feeling happy with their team’s performance as neither made any changes at half-time.

Sometimes the half-time break halts the momentum of the team on top before the whistle, but not this time as within a minute Roerslev was able to volley the ball goalwards from the edge of the box. His volley lacked power however and Martinez had more than enough time to get across and catch it. Roerslev was at the forefront of the Bees play again in the 52nd minute as his header away from a Villa cross set the Bees clear on the break down the right hand side. This promising break fell victim to ref’s whistle and put the hosts 2-1 up on this score. This time however the ref’s decision to stop play was vindicated as it became clear that Canos was in some severe discomfort on the right side of the Villa box. The treatment given to him by the medics was clearly unable to fix whatever the problem was as he had to be substituted 2 minutes later.

The bad luck for the Bees continued in the 60th minute as Mathias Jensen went down right in front of me clutching his leg. It appeared at first to be a groin issue, but when he hobbled off the pitch minutes later it became clear that it was more likely to be a hamstring problem. Canos was replaced by Saman Ghoddos and Jensen by Shandon Baptiste, but if these two are out for the long term then the Bees squad which is already stretched by injuries to David Raya, Rico Henry and Bryan Mbuemo will begin to look wafer thin and some reinforcements in this current transfer window appear a must for the depleted hosts.

For this game though the hosts changes appeared to give Villa a second wind as they produced two chances in as many minutes. Both of these came from long balls over the top. The first fell to Ezri Konsa in the penalty area but his touch let him down at the crucial moment and the ball dribbled to Fernandez between the sticks for the Bees. The second chance fell to Danny Ings on the edge of the box and his powerful shot had to be deflected wide by the Bees defence.

This Villa momentum was brought to an end in the 69th minute as Gerrard decides to shuffle his pack. He took off Jacob Ramsey and replaced him with Morgan Sanson. Ramsey had been a little anonymous in the second half so it seemed to be a sensible switch, but this switch seemed to give the Bees a little extra momentum for some unknown reason and they created the next presentable chance of the match in the 75th minute.

A sweeping Bees attack fed the ball through to Frank Onyeka on the edge of the Villa box. He cut inside one defender and let fly, his shot sailing inches wide of the post as the hosts came extremely close to taking the lead in a game they had looked like losing comprehensively in the first 30 minutes.

Villa then had an attack of their own in the 77th minute when only a sliding tackle from the covering Ivan Toney prevented them from getting in behind the hosts defence. The ref gave Toney a yellow for the challenge and at this point I was quite relieved the ref had taken a different view of the first half set to than I had or that would have been Toney’s marching orders. As it was though Toney remained on the pitch and the Villa player he had tackled received treatment before play resumed.

The last 10 opened with a substitution from both sides. Villa replaced Bertrand Traore with Trezuguet for his final appearance before he heads off to compete with Egypt at the Africa Cup of Nations in Cameroon. For the hosts Frank Onyeka was removed from the action and replaced by Vitaly Janelt.

It was Villa who had the first chance of the last 10 minutes with a glancing header off a freekick from the left hand side that flew straight into the keeper’s grateful arms. That happened in the 82nd minute and a minute later the hosts had the lead. The second goal for the Bees came from the right hand side as the ball was worked forward to Roerslev. His first shot was blocked, but the ball rebounded straight too him and he made no mistake at the second time of asking. He slid it under the keeper’s diving body and into the back of the net.

That was Roerslev’s first ever goal for Brentford and the first time Brentford had been ahead in a match since beating Watford 2-1 on the 10th of December. They would win again here, but not before Villa put them to the test and forced them to defend that lead with every fibre of their being.

In the 85th minute Villa broke upfield and worked the ball into the Brentford box. Their first shot from 6 yards out was brilliantly kept out by Fernandez and the rebound was hacked to safety by Bees captain Pontus Jansson. Where this fighting spirit had been from the Bees in the first 30 minutes of the match beats me, but I was glad they had it here.

Villa came again though and came close to an equaliser in the 90th minute as the hosts blocked chance after chance. First Villa had a shot blocked from within the box, then one blocked as they let fly from the edge of the D, then a third chance went begging as Targett headed just wide at the back post.

Their were 5 added minutes at the edge of the 90 and my nerves could’ve done without that. Villa had chances to equalise twice within these added minutes. They first had two corners in a row that they almost scored from. Fernandez had to get down low to his left to smuggle a header round the post from the first one and then punched the ball off a Villa striker’s head from the second. Villa refused to be beaten though and produced one final chance. This time a freekick on halfway was fired up field and landed at the feet of Hause on the edge of the box. His attempt to square the ball to a teammate was cut out by the Bees defence who put it behind for another Villa corner. Martinez came up for this one too, but even having the keeper up was not enough to force the ball into the goal and the match ended 2-1 to Brentford.

Villa can feel hard done by not to get at least a point from the match as they absolutely deserved it. The result as it is though catapults Brentford above Villa and into 12th place, which makes them by far and away the best newly promoted team of the season and makes their decision to roll-over their current kit for next season too look far less optimistic than it first appeared. My apologies must go to Mr. Gerrard though as his team deserved a point from the match and to see my boyhood hero leave the game with no points for his team just feels wrong. It’s how things worked out though and on the showing from both teams they will finish the season far away from any worries at the wrong end of the table.

Since the match Villa have bought in Gerrard’s old Liverpool teammate Coutinho in on loan till the end of the season and I hope this works out for both parties far better than his move to Barcelona did.

The next blog will come from the Midlands as Brentford visit Port Vale this weekend in the FA Cup 3rd round and I will be present at the match as the League Two side look to gain a Premier League scalp. Cupset on the cards?