Martin O'Neill: It’s going to be tight at the top
MARTIN O’Neill is predicting an open Premier League campaign at both ends of the table.
The Villa boss believes the evidence of the opening three games points to a season of shocks and surprises.
“The league, I believe, is going to be really tight this year,” he said.
“I think it will be won with less points than has been needed before, and I also think the total to stay in the Premiership might be reasonably strong as well.
“An indication of things is that Manchester City were beaten by us and won their next two games.
“Tottenham – for all their comings and goings – have one point on the board after three games.
“I don’t think anyone is getting into any sort of panic. Portsmouth lost their first two games, which you’d have thought would be really hard anyway (against Chelsea and Manchester United), then went to Everton and won convincingly.
“That is the nature of the season.”
O’Neill is content with the start his side have made having beaten City, drawn with Liverpool and lost at Stoke which compares to their performances last season.
“We have got three games on the board,” he said. “We have the same number of points as we had last season from the first three games – beaten by Liverpool, went to Newcastle and drew, then beat Fulham.“We are in the same position. We have played Liverpool, it was disappointing not to have got a point at Stoke when we could have done.”
O’Neill admits Villa’s performances have been mixed but says they could easily have ended up with more points. “It’s very, very difficult at this moment to be trying to make assessments.
“Overall, I thought our performance against Manchester City was excellent. I thought in the second half against Stoke that we were the stronger side, and I thought we finished the stronger against Liverpool.
“I thought we were pressing strongly at the end to try to get a winner.
“We didn’t create enough chances in the game. Which was unusual for us.
“It ended up being more tactical than anything else. That was not the way that we had set out, we wanted to try to explode into the game but it became rather tactical at the end.”
O’Neill knows performances will improve when new players bed in.
“Considering the changes we have made, considering we have had changes to the back four and people trying to settle in – Nicky Shorey and Luke Young. These players have come in quite late in proceedings, so it will take a wee bit of time.”
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