To lose one Midlands derby may be regarded as a misfortune, to lose two looks like carelessness, so goodness only knows what Oscar Wilde would have to say if Aston Villa were to be defeated by Birmingham City at Villa Park on Tuesday.
The Capital One Cup tie has taken on extra significance after Tim Sherwood’s side followed up the misplacing of a two-goal lead at Leicester City with this defeat by their oldest local rivals.
A winning goal from Saido Berahino, whom Tony Pulis believes can earn a recall to the England squad, leaves Villa pondering their worst start to a season since 1986-87 when they were last relegated from the top flight.
They have lost six of their past eight Premier League games, sit one place above the relegation zone without a home victory and are struggling to integrate 10 new players after the departure of arguably their best three in Christian Benteke, Fabian Delph and Ron Vlaar. The prospect of losing at home to Championship and local rivals does not bear contemplating.
Boos rang around Villa Park as Berahino and his team-mates celebrated with their raucous supporters at the end of a derby that threatens to turn the momentum of last season’s corresponding fixture on its head.
Villa found their mojo last March when Sherwood inspired them to successive victories over West Brom to reach for Premier League survival and the FA Cup final. Although there would be little appetite for more significant changes at this early juncture, Villa’s chances of progress this season would be severely damaged if the relatively new manager had to rebuild relations with supporters because of three consecutive derby defeats.
After the dirge that represented the latter half of Paul Lambert’s reign, Sherwood’s positivity and penchant for swashbuckling football leaves him in credit with the Holte End faithful who have become accustomed to life in the lower half of the Premier League in the past five years.
No Villa fan can ignore the loss of Benteke, scorer of 15 goals last season, Delph and Vlaar, and expect their replacements to do a better job straight away. But if it is going to get worse before it gets better then, for Sherwood’s sake, let it not be against Birmingham.
Typically, the former Tottenham Hotspur coach sees the clubs’ first derby for more than five years as a shot at redemption. “I relish it,” he said. “It’s an opportunity to send our fans home happy. They haven’t felt that for a period of time so we are looking to be able to do that. They feel very bad today going home, but so will I.
“I need to make sure that the players come out [fighting] with me and I’m sure they will. I look them in the eye and I know that they’re bitterly disappointed with our points return but equally they know it’s not all doom and gloom.
“We are making progress. We have an awful lot of changes this season and we know that it will take time. It’s going to be an up-and-down season. There have been more downs than ups but we deserve more than we have on the table.”
If Villa were too open in allowing Leicester back into the contest last week, West Brom shut them down too easily. Only Manchester City and Chelsea have breached Pulis’s backline in the first seven games and, with a fresh zest about their play epitomised by Berahino’s willingness to play wide left now they have their 20-goal man in the fold after the disruptive transfer window, Albion are looking upwards.
His goal was typically ingenious and instinctive, reacting sharply to divert home James Morrison’s drive, and with Roy Hodgson indicating he wants to field squad players for next month’s Euro qualifiers with Estonia and Lithuania now qualification is assured, so the opportunity is there for Berahino to return to the reckoning. “I don’t see any reason why [not],” Pulis said. “He’s got that special talent for scoring goals and he’s shown it again today. [But] I think he’s got to get back in our team first and do well before we start pushing him.”
Man of the match Darren Fletcher (West Bromwich Albion)
