Aston Villa earlier this week welcomed Queens Park Rangers to Villa Park following a busy last day of the January transfer window for the visitors who made two deals for strikers. Djibril Cisse was able to feature last night after beating the transfer deadline day window and getting the paperwork in before the mid-day cut-off time period.
It didn’t take the Frenchman long to open his account for QPR as he found the net on 11 minutes as he coolly slotted home for the visitors. It was yet another nightmare of an evening for Stephen Warnock who handed the visitors a two goal advantage on the half hour mark in the first half cushioned header went into goalkeeper Shay Given’s net following QPR’s Taye Taiwo in swinging cross into the box with no QPR player near the ball.
The Aston Villa fans became restless and frustrated chants began to eco around Villa Park of “Come on Villa, Come on Villa”. Villa were unfortunate not to be rewarded with a penalty appeal falling on deaf ears when Jamie Mackie appeared to handle in the penalty area.
Villa’s persistence paid off just before half time interval with a nicely worked free-flowing attack which found Darren Bent in the penalty area who coolly slotted it passed Paddy Kenny in the QPR goal. With Darren Bent scoring he reached the Premier League elites “100 goal club” where he joins just 22 other players in the history of the league and this was Darren Bent’s 9th goal of the campaign.
The late goal before half-time couldn’t hold back the boos from reverberating around Villa Park as both teams left the field of play. It seemed that the reverberations of Alex McLeish were still ringing in the Villa players ears as in the second half they came out all attacking having a massive amount of time on the ball.
Aston Villa equalised in the 78th minute with Stephen Ireland cutting a forward pass to Stiliyan Petrov who was out on the right wing supplying the cross to find Villa teammate Charles NZogbia who struck a sweetful volley with his left foot to find the right hand corner of Paddy Kenny’s goal.
It was the Frenchman’s first goal for the club since the capture of the rated £9.5million summer signing. NZogbia hasn’t had the best start to his career in an Aston Villa shirt, so this can hopefully help the Frenchman find his form, during the game he was able to pull opposition players around the field with his quick movement and dribbling ability.
Yet again Villa were left with a bit of rough justice with two more penalty claims falling on deaf ears of match official Neil Swarbrick when Shaun Derry appears to control the ball with his hand following a shot from Ciaran Clark. The last handball appeal came in the dying moments of the 90 minutes where Tommy Smith cleared from Darren Bent’s shot from an incoming corner.
Although the game yesterday may seem like a 2 points lost there are some positives that can be taken from the game along with Darren Bent’s 100th Premier League goal and Charles Nzgobia first goal for Aston Villa.
Aston Villa dominated possession with 68.5% with this also Villa managed to attempted 26 shots on goal and hit the target 10 times during the game with a lot of them being hit down the middle or to the keeper’s left hand side of the goal.
Aiding to the possession success Villa held onto the ball effective but were also able to pass the ball effectively with 637 passes and accurately completing 534 of them giving a pass percentage of 84%.
Aston Villa’s loaned figure of Robbie Keane played  and he contributed so much to the team in the form of an 85% successful passing rate playing behind the front two of Gabby Agbonlahor and Darren Bent.
Keane has worked with Bent for former club Tottenham Hotspur and has a good partnership together, arguably the impact of Robbie Keane in training has kicked Darren Bent into form that was becoming stale but he looks to be enjoying the game again.
Darren Bent’s 100th Premier League goal against QPR is the third goal the striker has scored in consecutive games for Aston Villa.
