Boxing Clever: Villa Dispatched

boxderWhile most of us spent Boxing Day incapacitated on the sofa; happily quaffing sloe gin and picking meat off of a turkey carcass which looked remarkably as if a hand-grenade had gone off inside it, the merry folk of Hotspur were up in the Midlands harvesting three points from an out-of-sorts Villa side. Far from being afforded an easy time of it, this was a performance where the visitors in Lilywhite were required to grab their shovels and hardhats and ruddy well dig deep.

A numerical disadvantage for the best part of an hour certainly didn’t help matters much. Nor the largely curious approach to refereeing by one Martin Atkinson. If you were playing dubious call bingo on Sunday evening, you’d have been on your feet waving a card about the place within half an hour of arriving. Which, oddly, is exactly what Atkinson did as Jermain Defoe saw red for the heinous crime of jumping.

If digging deep was required as the odds swung in Villa’s favour, then Van der Vaart was chief miner. Handed the thankless task of heading a revised 4-5-0 formation- with the Dutchman plonked halfway between a five man midfield and the acres of green space ahead of him where Defoe used to be- he held up the ball like a seasoned target man. It’s a testament to his versatility that Crouch remained benched for as long as he was. His goals were a joy. His touches, his passion and bullish determination, frankly, a bloody Christmas miracle. Notice him hurling his jacket to the floor just before Robert Pires made the foolhardy decision to get within arm’s reach of Joe Jordan. The cause of his outrage? Spurs weren’t awarded a throw-in.

Modric’s ball to Hutton was so exquisite that I thought about writing a strongly worded letter to MOTD and asking them to include it in their Goal of the Month competition. Not the goal itself. Just the pass. Just the two seconds of Croatian magic where the Villa defence was splinched in half like a machete through a coconut. I’d vote for it. If I didn’t think the BBC were going to steal my money and give it to Somali pirates. The bast*rds.

BAE and Palacios were both terrific. Our resident Cameroonian might as well wear aviator sunglasses and chew on a tooth pick- such is the coolness in which he conducts business. Maybe even a cigarette. While still prone to the odd lapse, they’re becoming fewer and farther between and I don’t think it’ll be long before we’re wondering how we ever did without him. Vastly improving, vastly talented.

Newcastle up next. Win and we’ll overtake Chelsea. The race for fourth place and beyond is still wide open.

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