Ratings and reactions: Villa 2-0 Wigan

[theboyangel]

Took my boy to his first match - thank god the sun was shining, Villa played well and we scored two very good goals!!!

That was probably the most complete performance by Villa this season from what i've seen of them. What was nice was to see us pressing Wigan high up the pitch, starting with Gabby, Bent, Bannan and Ireland.

Our passing was better and the understanding between players looked to be getting there or there abouts.

Defensively, barring Hutton we were solid, Warnock, Dunne and Collins were brilliant, not to mention the rarely called upon Given.

My ratings:

Given: 7. Didn't have much to do but solid when called upon

Hutton: 5. Our weak link in defence, still looks sluggish and rusty

Dunne: 7. Again, like Given not much to do!

Collins: 7. A bit of hoofing as expected but less attempted 'hollywood' passes

Warnock: 7.5. Worked hard, got forward well and defensively sound

Petrov: 7.5. Another good shift and unlucky not to score a screamer

Delph: 6.5. Looks low on confidence but still tore around the middle

Bannan: 7.5. Becoming a favourite already, good passes and again, unlucky not to score a screamer!

Ireland: 7. Much much better, a few more games and it'll click upfront

Gabby: 10. Simply unplayable, beautiful goal a couple of great chances too but it was his work ethic and the setting up the second goal that really stood out MOTM

Bent: 7. Good comeback from Benty, denied by a good GK but then took his goal very well

Subs:

Heskey: 6.5. Great work rate when tracking back

Weimman: 6.5. Still rightly ahead of Delfouneso could've done better with his chance

N'Zogbia: 6.5. Not a bad cameo, could tell he wanted to play!

Overall: 7.5.

[OutByEaster?]

Gabby is such a formidable athlete that when he's in this form and this mood, there's really not much a defence can do about it. He was very good yesterday.

Bent is off the boil, but still got himself into three excellent scoring positions and put one away - he'll probably think he should have put more than that into the net, but he remains a lurking threat.

Bannan was good, particularly in he first half where he pulled all the strings, Petrov is having a good season and looks to have lease of life, I think Delph is doing the ugly things well, Ireland has found some enthusiasm but hasn't found his touch yet and was wasteful.

Dunne and Collins look solid enough but will find bigger challenges ahead and I'm very happy with Shay behind them.

At full back I think Warnock is quietly having a very good season - and it's good to see him back.

Hutton on the other side shows good moments but doesn't look the most dynamic - he also didn't seem to get a lot of protection yesterday - not sure why - how many of our midfield four are left footers?

[AVFC-Prideofbrum]

Hutton on the other side shows good moments but doesn't look the most dynamic - he also didn't seem to get a lot of protection yesterday - not sure why - how many of our midfield four are left footers?

We played extremely narrow in the midfield. Will have to change it for tougher games I think.

[OutByEaster?]

Hutton on the other side shows good moments but doesn't look the most dynamic - he also didn't seem to get a lot of protection yesterday - not sure why - how many of our midfield four are left footers?

We played extremely narrow in the midfield. Will have to change it for tougher games I think.

We did and very deliberately so - it stopped Wigan passing the ball and forced them into a game that was unnatural for them.

I think we'll have to keep it for tougher games and bring the wingers back when we're the side expected to win and we need to break teams down.

[largelugs]

N'Zogbia: 6.5. Not a bad cameo, could tell he wanted to play!

Overall: 7.5.

Enjoyed the game and happy with the performance, however don't know how N'zogbia can rate so highly, from what i remember , he touched the ball twice in his 16 min.

[theboyangel]

He got himself around the pitch, tracked back and did a lovely dinked ball over the defender for (I think) Heskey or Weimman to run onto.

I thought he actually looked bothered to be on the pitch for once!

[Rodders]

Good to see AM make changes - like dropping Nzogbia to keep Ireland and Bannan in there etc. I know plenty of our past managers wouldn't have dropped their major summer signing like that.

[NeilS]

Very welcome 3 points, nice to see Bent get a goal, hopefully this will give him the boost to kick on with another goal scoring spurt. Gabby looked in top form, I hope the injury isn't going to stop him now he is in full flight. If we can get a few more wins under our belt in the next few weeks, then hopefully we can build some momentum and cement ourselves amongst the top 6-8 positions until the January window.

[Richard]

Said we would draw, we won. Thrilled to be wrong

[briny_ear]

Some interesting stats nicked from fourfourtwo

That's total passes in the game. Wigan made 437 passes, 368 successful. Villa made 272, 194 successful.

That massive hole in their passing pattern btw is Villa's penalty area.

Incidentally, there was a remarkably similar pattern to the Spurs Arsenal game.

One thing this chart does show up is how much our play was left-sided on Saturday. You can see this clearly from a Guardian chalkboard "heatmap" showing the areas where most passes were made.

It's OK to play on the right, guys!

[Morpheus]

Disturbing how many pages a ratings and reactions thread has after a win compared to after a loss.

Seems like Villa fans love a loss and a moan.

Mate i really wish you'd give it a rest slating everyone in sight who dare to critisize the team. It really is getting tiresome now.

Great to see the team winning and Gab was brilliant. With the present squad i just want us to survive in the Premiership this season and we're doing ok at the moment. Wigan were very poor though and on this showing they will go down.

[makouns_grin]

Disturbing how many pages a ratings and reactions thread has after a win compared to after a loss.

Seems like Villa fans love a loss and a moan.

Mate i really wish you'd give it a rest slating everyone in sight who dare to critisize the team. It really is getting tiresome now.

Great to see the team winning and Gab was brilliant. With the present squad i just want us to survive in the Premiership this season and we're doing ok at the moment. Wigan were very poor though and on this showing they will go down.

About as tiresome as everything in the world being the boards and McCleish's fault and saying how shit we are every 5mins?

No thought not.

[Morpheus]

Mate you've just proven my point for me.