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What Aston Villa fans deserve!

Article by Luke Heyes

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Pitch invasions, duel ownership of bragging rights, a manager far from dull, great goals, direct, attacking football, prodigious displays and renewed confidence, less groaning and sighing, a proud history…a bright future, another three points and an unheard of debutant sixteen year old!

The jamboree of ‘The Sherwood Factor’ seems to be gathering more rhythm and buoyancy and positivity seems to be flowing like champagne from a golden flute.

Although an old teammate of the passionate, explosive Gus Poyet, Sherwood was quick to add before Saturday’s match that he intended to take full advantage of Sunderland’s current fragilities. And boy did that happen. Four first half goals in quick succession and arguably the most rampant, flourishing Aston Villa performance since the demolishing of the same team last season. Our record against Sunderland speaks for itself but to see the team play with so much fervour and confidence is simply testament to Sherwood and his backroom staff. It is once again great to be a Villa supporter. The feeling of winning has returned; match of the day is once again something to look forward to; but to dwell merely on the weekend’s result would be an injustice to everything else that is currently encouraging.

One aspect of our current success relates to individual characteristics of the manager himself. Personality will not solely win you games but the haughtiness, the energy and the touchline antics that we are seeing are doing nothing but improve our ethos and squad. Tim Sherwood is an optimist but also a realist. Every post-match interview and pre-match build up involves a culmination of brutal honesty, constructive criticism, challenges, discipline and of course, managerial punch lines to die for. Sherwood is full of energy and relishes the camera banter and publicity. Essentially, he is what a club like Aston Villa need and his persona is vital to our progress.

Another aspect of our current success relates to man management and player performance. Under Paul Lambert, far too many players were branded with ‘potential’ labels and a lot of creativity became stifled. Lambert was a stubborn manager who was quick to turn on a player if they didn’t immediately excite and what happened was that we had a predictable starting eleven where tactics became too probable and players felt restricted. Christian Benteke said recently in a post-match interview that the reason for the club’s current triumphs are down to freedom. Tim Sherwood has given players the license to go forward and play off the front foot, often moving out of position, taking risks and looking for the forward pass. The rise in player performances has been outstanding. Tom Cleverley is a different player, Leandro Bacuna is the new Cafu, Matt Lowton is showing the promise that he did last season, Scott Sinclair is buzzing, Clarke is a renegade, Okore is Mr consistent and of course Gabby and Benteke are firing again. I almost forgot…a debut for sixteen year old Rushian Hepburn-Murphy. There is also Grealish and Kinsella. When you digest all of this, the future looks upbeat.

Finally, in employing Tim Sherwood, the board have helped Aston Villa locate their holy grail. Before his arrival, goals were few and far between but right now we seem to have them in abundance. And it’s not just our full backs and central defenders who are scoring. Our key strikers appear to be back to the best form and their resurrection was evidently recognised as both featured in Garth Crooke’s team of the week.

And so we look forward to our next home game against Swansea, where in front of a buoyant Holte End crowd, another three points will hopefully be added to our tally. Villa fans can sit content, still basking in the glories of the last two weeks: but isn’t this what we deserve?

It is once again great to be a Villa supporter.

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