UK Football

Aston Villa flopped in what should have been an easy three points against Stoke City at the weekend.  Villa manager Martin O’Neill blamed his side’s overconfidence for the blunder, and I’d have to agree considering the Villans completely threw away a two goal lead in the last three minutes of the match.  When you’re challenging to break into the Champions League, a two goal lead should always be enough to get past opposition that’s much further down the table like Stoke City.

Aston Villa need to learn how important matches like these are.  Some people would say that you have to beat the other clubs in the top four in order to win the league, or be successful, but that really isn’t true.  Look at Manchester United, they don’t always have the greatest record against other top four opposition, but they win the league by winning practically every match that they should win, something Aston Villa haven’t been good at in the past, and need to avoid this time in the latter half of the season.  Or despite Arsenal’s many shortcomings this year, Villa could find themselves out of Champions League contention really fast.

Speaking of clubs that find their hopes in danger of being dashed, Liverpool lost a match they should have won fairly easily, as the league hopefuls were overwhelmingly defeated in a 2-0 loss at Middlesbrough.  I understand Liverpool haven’t been very successful at the Riverside in recent years, but when Rafael Benitez is hoping to win the Premiership for the first time, a broken down Boro side that’s got a fairly atrocious league record should be a guaranteed win.

But instead a pitiful uninspired Liverpool side completely rolled over, and let three more points escape, giving league leaders Manchester United the potential to go ten points ahead at the top, after they play catch up from their Carling Cup final victory.

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