Didn't come out of the trap second half, did our usual inviting the opposition on to us and paid the price, again.
Given - 6
Warnock - 4 Not good enough. Should be shipped out.
Dunne - 6 That game was Richard Dunne in a nutshell. He'll score a fantastic goal and make some world-class tackles, then give away a penalty or score an own goal.
Cuellar - 7 Steady. Best defender we have at the club. Wont be surprised to see him sold.
Hutton - I'm not giving him a rating. He doesn't deserve one. He can't pass, tackle, dribble, has no awareness, and is a liability.
Clark - 5 At least looks like he cares
Petrov - 5 As above
Ireland - 7 On a different level to the rest of the team. Needs to play with Bannan and / or N'Zogbia.
Keane - 6 Game mostly passed him by. Didn't look very interested once things got tough.
Gabby - 6 Clearly not fit.
Bent - 6 Good goal, but why the **** was he making challenges like that in his own penalty area? Why is our lone striker anywhere near his own penalty area anyway? It's asking for trouble.
Do you know what, it's difficult to knock most of the lads. Most of them didn't do much wrong. Players like Ireland, Keane and Bent are just not suited to the way we play. There are 3 major problems with that team that I can see.
1) Alan Hutton and Steven Warnock. Hutton is the worst Villa player I can remember for some years. Steven Warnock, is like Hutton, though maybe not as bad. Both give the ball away too cheaply and too frequently and make too many rash tackles. This invites pressure onto us.
2) Tactics. Sitting back when you get your nose in front doesn't work. We are too defensive and too negative and too quick to try and shut up shop. Our lone striker should not be making last ditch tackles in the penalty area.
3) Defensive organisation. We are piss poor at defending set pieces and also get pulled out of position too easily during open play . Although we did not concede from a set piece today, we were bloody lucky. A team with more aerial presence would have buried one of those early corners Arsenal had. When you are playing as defensively as we are, not being very good at defending is a massive problem.