Aston Villa and Martin O’Neill – A match made in Heaven

Don’t bet against Aston Villa lifting the Uefa Cup trophy at the end of this season. They play a refreshing brand of fast attacking football, they are deadly from set pieces, they have a strong defence and they have one of the best managers in the business.

Excellent win

Last night Villa made two wins out of two in the Uefa Cup by following up the victory over Ajax with an excellent 1-0 win against Slavia Prague. The goal was credited to the giant Norwegian striker John Carew when Steve Sidwell’s shot was deflected into the net by him.

Although Slavia piled on a fair amount of pressure, Villa could have scored others with Ashley Young and Carew going close.

New faces

Probably the most impressive thing amongst many impressive things surrounding Villa’s win last night was the fact that the side contained six new faces from the last league game.

Brad Friedel, Martin Laursen, Luke Young, Nigel Reo-Coker and Gareth Barry all found themselves warming the bench and James Milner was unavailable. Winning at Slavia Prague with that quality of player not on the pitch shows that the old criticism of Villa of having no depth to their squad is very definitely no longer the case.

Bounced back

In the league, Aston Villa currently sit fifth and were going very well until a 2-0 defeat at Newcastle last time out. They have bounced back from that defeat and are likely to maintain that fifth place throughout the season in my opinion. They will do all they can to break into the top four and they will do what they can to hold off the challenge from the likes of Everton below them.

Apart from having some very good players, Villa also have a very good manager. He is rarely negative and his motivational abilities appear to be amongst the best.

Look at what Martin O’Neill said after the defeat at Newcastle:

“The first half was excellent and we deserved to go in front, but we are instead left to rue the chances we would normally take. They were big moments in the game, hitting the post and Gabriel Agbonlahor missing a chance he’d usually score. But when they scored, it became a fatal blow, not just a setback.”

Look at what he said after last night’s win in Prague:

“We were really great in the first half. Maybe we could have scored more goals. I think we deserved to win. I believe now that seven points will definitely get us through to the play-off stage scheduled for next spring.”

Look at what he said after a lucky 3-2 win over Blackburn:

“We didn’t play well at all. We never got going. We looked very jaded and I was absolutely delighted because we conjured up a win from absolutely nothing.”

And after the 4-0 win at Wigan:

“It was a great performance and a result I had not expected. With us having played on Thursday night, it was a concern, but there were some terrific performances all told. I was worries about today’s game so for us to win today in the manner that we did was great.”

You can see that after a range of performances and results, the message coming from O’Neill is always a positive one. “First half was excellent”, “Really great in the first half”, “Absolutely delighted”, “Great performance”. No matter how they’ve played and what the result, O’Neill always speaks positively and finds the good things to talk about. Obviously, we don’t know if he is always that positive behind the closed doors of the dressing room, but if he is, what a joy he must be to be managed by.

He always concentrates on what his team have done (Arsene Wenger take note!) and rarely comments on the opposition.

Success

O’Neill was awarded the O.B.E. back in 2004 and has achieved success wherever he has been as a manager. He started at Wycombe Wanderers where he took them out of the non-league by winning the conference, twice won the F.A. Trophy (the FA Cup for non-league teams), and got them promotion from the now League Two.

He moved on to Leicester where he got them promotion to the Premier League and twice won the League cup. After leaving Leicester he went to Celtic, winning the SPL three times, the Scottish Cup three times and the League Cup once. You only need to look at what has happened to Leicester since he left and realise that Rangers had won the Scottish Premier League eleven times out of twelve prior to his arrival at Celtic Park to know the impact he has.

Fresh air

I wish Villa and O’Neill well because they play the game in the right way and with the right spirit. Amongst the moaning and whinging of some of the Premier League managers Martin O’Neill really is a breath of fresh air.