Aston Villa 0 Fulham 0

Dec 1 2008 by Bill Howell, Birmingham Mail

TYPICAL Villa. They can seemingly cook up a starter of pate de foie gras, presented on a bed of seasonal leaves with rustic bread.

They follow it with a main course of fillet mignon with pink peppercorn sauce and pont neuf, washed down with a claret.

Then they serve up a dessert of a melted Twix bar, left in the glove box for a couple of days and still in its wrapper.

Typical Villa. They can dance with the stars but tread on toes when trying to waltz with Joe Public.

Typical Villa. They can spar with the champ and occasionally knock his lights out only to get dizzy-eyed when presented with a journeyman.

Still, you get no prizes for being third in November.

Villa weren’t bad against Fulham but they weren’t good either.

And for a team that popped in goals for fun last year – with an inferior side – they now possess the worrying ability to fire blanks against teams who won’t come forward to meet them.

The statistics now read that since the opening-day mauling of Manchester City Villa have netted just six goals from their subsequent seven home league games.

Four of those matches have been 0-0. It might be best to bring an alarm clock when Bolton come to town.

That’s, of course, ridiculous. Had Villa netted any one of four or five chances that came their way against a resurgent Fulham then the agenda would now be their momentum and ability to nick wins when they play poorly.

But they didn’t. And Martin O’Neill’s desperate need for a couple of strikers in January is now as urgent as ever.

John Carew’s worrying ability to pick up a niggle certainly robbed Villa of any viable substitution here.

The Norwegian would surely have had at least the last half-an-hour but his latest injury saw him again sat in the stands.

Two starts in nine matches now for perhaps the club’s most influential player after a whistleblower spotted him out late prior to the Ajax match.

A look at the bench said it all. There was Marlon Harewood, head bowed in his puffer jacket, eyes glued to the floor.