The Fiver– Aston Villa results compared to last season

Paul Lambert

We’ll be looking at comparing Aston Villa results after every five games to the equivalent games last season, as a way of charting the progress that Paul Lambert will hopefully be making with Villa.

Villa’s first five games of the 2013/14 season looked very menacing, especially with Benteke’s transfer uncertainty and the addition of several players that needed time to gel. While many fans expressed understandable anguish at the fixtures generated by the Premier League computer (and David Moyes though he had it bad!), others felt it was the best time to play the big teams – even if it did mean reliving some of the heavy defeats of last season.

Overall, it’s been a decent start to the season, certainly in terms of performances, starting with Arsenal and Chelsea, while mixed performances at home to Liverpool and Newcastle were more disappointing. Villa’s clean sheet and win at Norwich was pleasing though, and while 6 points from 5 games might not sound stellar, how does it compare to the meetings last season?

Arsenal (a) W 3-1 (L 2-1)

Chelsea (a) L 2-1 (L 8-0)

Liverpool (h) L 1-0 (L 2-1)

Newcastle (h) L 2-1 (L 2-1)

Norwich (a) W 1-0 (W 2-1)

Points difference compared to fixtures last season – + 3

Goal difference compared to fixtures last season – +10

Goals scored – 6 (5)

Goals conceded – 6 (15)

(Brackets denote previous season’s results)

It was frustrating to see Newcastle repeat recent history with a 2-1 victory but the results show definite signs of improvement. There’s been a noticeable tightening of the defence, shipping only 40% of the goals Villa did against the same teams last season. A narrow loss to Chelsea (complete with a dodgy decision) was very much in contrast to the 8-0 thrashing received last season.

Five games into last season, Villa had 4 points, taken from an away Newcastle draw and a win against Swansea at home. While Villa might be displaying a few of the defensive issues seen last season, there’s no doubt that in these early stages signs have been promising.

If you want to see how bad Villa were last season, check out the next five games. If Villa lose them all, after the first ten games, they’d have accrued the same points as when they played the corresponding teams last season.

Manchester City (h) (L 1-0)

Hull City (a) (w 2-1 – comparing Hull to Reading)

Tottenham (h) (L 4-0)

Everton (h) (L 3-1)

West Ham (a) (L 1-0)

Certainly it’s a tough start to the season, especially at Villa Park. It’s not going to be easy with Christian Benteke missing most of these fixtures, but any points in the next three home games will be an improvement on last season’s form. It’s kind of essential that they do. Villa surely can’t be left in a situation where they’ll have lost their first five home games. Can they? Come on Lambert!