We Were Poor - The Verdict

Gerard Houllier has admitted we simply weren't good enough today, and frankly didn't turn up for the first half at all.

Speaking on the Official Site after the 4-2 defeat at the hands of 'the other Frenchman' Houllier wasn't too happy at all, even though he was far more impressed by our second half showing.

'We were beaten by the better team. We totally missed the first half, we never seemed to get started. In fact when we were getting a bit more settled and started after half an hour, we conceded.'

Not for the first time with the Villa we are left discussing a game of two halves, as Gerard's words on the second half are far more upbeat.

'We came back in the second half, we were a different team. We had more energy, more positive thinking, we took more risks and we were more daring. We wanted to achieve something.'

He adds that Arsenal's 3rd goal was the killer and if we could've just held on for longer and carried on playing our game without going further behind, he believes the match would've had a different outcome.

'Once we scored the first goal, it's just a shame we couldn't live a bit longer for the next 10 minutes. They scored a third goal and that to me was the pivotal moment of the game. If we could've lived for another 10 minutes because after what happened to them last week, they would have been a bit shaky and it would have rattled them.'

He ends by saying that all excuses aside, all injuries aside it's simply not worth using them as we were beaten by the better team but there is plenty we can learn from owing to the lack of a first half performance and he wants the team to never let that happen again.

'To be fair, we have to be honest, we were beaten by a team that were better than us. Simple as that. We are struggling in terms of personnel but when it's like that you need to stick together and get on with it.'

Onwards and upwards, a disappointing result for sure as no doubt many of us would've taken the draw before the match.

It's getting difficult to look for the positives in these results, but Clarkie stands out for one and hopefully Collins' calf will be ok for Blues, but a touch more match fitness for Pires and Carew will stand us in good stead as the season progresses and others start returning from injury.

Vital Villa on:

Vital Villa on:

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