Capital One Cup: 5 reasons to be cheerful as an Aston Villa fan after a routine Rotherham win

Aston Villa 3 Rotherham 0 – Lambert’s men march on in League Cup

1. Clean sheet! Yes, it actually happened. Even more impressive was the fact Joe Bennett was also playing left-back. Also, it was good to see Lambert give Ron Vlaar and Jores Okore another game together to help build their understanding.

2. The passing of the Villa team shows a marked improvement from last season. When comparing the snappy one-touch passing that led up to the third goal to the cautious sideways and backwards passes that suffocated the Bradford City semi-final home leg last season, there’s been a marked difference.

Villa look a lot more dynamic with the ball now with Fabian Delph certainly adding more drive and urgency in the middle of the park to the team’s approach play. It was also good to see Delph among the goals, something that hopefully will be an addition to his game this season.

3. Cruise control. Newcastle and Liverpool left it late in their League Cup games, while the likes of Fulham and Everton went beyond 90 minutes against lower league opposition, so it was good to see Villa dispatch Rotherham in a cool and calculated fashion.

4. That’s eight wins in the last nine League Cup games at Villa Park. That’s the kind of form that should give Villa a proper chance in this cup.

5. You’ve got a three-week period to book a holiday and not miss any Villa action. Actually, that’s not a good thing, I was just getting into the swing of things again. Until next time. UTV

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