Alex McLeish’s substitution after the hour mark provoked an unwelcome groan from Villa fans behind the Holte End with chants of “You don’t know what you’re doing”. At the end of the game game these chants were unfounded as fans frustration turned to joy after the unfamiliar feeling of celebrating a win.
Although Aston Villa dominated possession in the first half they allowed Fulham back into the game during the second half. The stat summary reads that the possession over the 90 minutes was far closer in favour of Aston Villa recording 51.2% compared to Fulham’s 48.8%.
Aston Villa’s win had an added boost on the simple fact it was Villa’s 7th clean sheet of the 2011/2012 campaign.
Over the last few games now that the defence has minimized and has seen an improvement with the addition of Carlos Cuellar who is currently deputising for injured defender Richard Dunne. Cuellar has been a like for like swap at the back his aerial presence has been the same of his injured counterpart. During the Fulham game Cuellar’s tall frame enabled him to complete 5 out of the 6 headed clearances and was able make 6 out of 8 successful clearances.
Right-footed Carlos Cuellar was able to complete 90% pass accuracy and was comfortable within his own half complete 31 out of 31 with a 100% accuracy.
Carlos Cuellar used his earlier position experience when he was playing at the right-back as he was able to get forward and make an attacking contribution with 67% successful completion.
Hopefully Aston Villa can see Saturday’s result as a step in the right direction as they were close to the relegation zone which was the words on fans lips. The recent victory now takes Villa up to 15th position in the Barclays Premier League with 11 points clear of the relegation zone and 4 points away from 8th.
Aston Villa don’t have a fixture this weekend with due the FA Cup competition which Aston Villa don’t have any involvement in but welcome Bolton Wanderers next Tuesday to Villa Park.
So where do you believe Aston Villa could finish this season following their carbon copy table position of this time last season Villa fans?
All of the stats from this article have been taken from the Opta Stats Centre at EPLIndex.com – Subscribe Now (Includes a author privileges!) See Demo’s and videos about the Stats Centre & read about new additions to the stats centre.
