Five reasons to be cheerful as a Villa fan after Hammer point

 

West Ham 0 Aston Villa 0. There was an air of predictably about that result (I actually bet on it!). Still, if Benteke had put away his two late chances, Villa could have easily snatched it. That’s four games without a goal. It’s an alarming stat, but there are other reasons for the Villa fan not to get too gloomy about it…

1. Aston Villa’s long unbeaten run spanning November and December 2013 is officially up and running! We have a run of fixtures that surely should rack up some points too.

2. Well, that’s three clean sheets in the league in the first 10 games of the season. Considering Villa didn’t have one in the last ten games of last season (or in a run of almost 30 games), this suggests that the defence – with pretty much the same personal – has learnt from their mistakes and toughen up.

3. When I saw the teamsheet with Fabian Delph added to the missing Gabby (who would have made a difference in a game like today’s), I feared the worst. West Ham away has always traditionally been a tricky place for any Villa team to come, so not to lose (and almost snatch a win at the end), wasn’t a bad result.

4. The back three in Vlaar, Baker and Clark deserve special mention. Each have received heat from Villa fans, understandably so for some of their performances after the past year, but on the whole this season, they are turning up for work and putting in a decent shift.

5. Those Norwich City fans that still to this day give us hassle due to Lambert, saw their team get whacked 7-0 today…by a team we managed to beat 3-2. Life could be worse as a Villa fan.