Aston Vila: Why the goal drought is not major concern for O'Neill
Jan 30 2010 by Brian Halford, Birmingham Mail
MARTIN O’Neill today insisted that Villa are still “going strongly” despite a goal drought in the Premiership stretching back four games.
While Villa have rattled in nine goals in recent cup ties against Blackburn and Brighton, they fired blanks in their last four league fixtures against Arsenal (twice), Liverpool and West Ham.
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That barren streak has drained momentum from their pitch for a Champions League place next season.
But O’Neill, while admitting the lack of goals is a “concern”, draws encouragement from his team’s displays as a whole, not least in the goalless draw with Arsenal on Wednesday.
“I thought we played very well against Arsenal and could have scored a couple of goals,” the manager said. “We are making decent progress.
“In the last couple of games in the league we should have beaten Liverpool and West Ham and a draw was probably a fair result against Arsenal considering we had some decent chances to score. The opposition we have played against is very strong and we just couldn’t score a goal.
‘‘That seems strange when we scored six in our second-last home game before Arsenal and three in the one after that.
‘‘Just at this moment, in terms of the league, we haven’t been able to find the net but we are still going strongly and playing well.
“You will get little spells like that. Of course it is a concern but not a major worry.
‘‘If we had been playing poorly, I could have understood it but that has not been the case. Sometimes this just happens.
“Look at the matches we failed to score in. Against Arsenal we were 0-0 until Cesc Fabregas scored a wonderful goal and on the balance of play Arsenal eventually deserved to win the game.
‘‘But we should have scored goals and beaten Liverpool and West Ham.
“Then you couldn’t debate that we could have won the game with a couple of great chances against Arsenal at Villa Park, though a draw was probably a fair result because they hit the bar and the post.
“In between we have scored six goals in an epic Carling Cup semi-final and three in the FA Cup.
‘‘Overall I’d like to get out of the goalless run but I’d be more worried if we weren’t playing well.”
Victory at Fulham today would be a terrific way for Villa to reboot a league campaign which is threatening to peter out just as their cup campaign goes from strength to strength.
But O’Neill knows that Craven Cottage is a tough venue for visiting teams to extract points from.
Fulham’s rise to seventh in the final Premiership table last season was heavily fulled by points collected on their own patch – only the two Manchester clubs and Liverpool won more home games. A similar strategy is again working for the Whites this term.
“Fulham’s home record is remarkable,” O’Neill said.
“It has been incredible that they have relied on it so much. It seems to have been the same for a couple of seasons.
“They are able to beat anyone on their own patch yet find it difficult away from home. Because the game is at Craven Cottage, it will present us with quite a number of problems.”
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