Norwich City’s Dieumerci Mbokani ensures Aston Villa’s gloom deepens
Norwich 2 - 0 Aston VillaHome team scorers
Jonathan Howson 24
Dieumerci Mbokani 87
Jonathan Howson of Norwich City celebrates scoring in the 24th minute against Aston Villa
If David Cameron really does support Aston Villa, as he has sometimes claimed, then what a lovely first day on the job this was for the new Norwich City chairman, Ed Balls. The former shadow chancellor watched Jonny Howson and Dieumerci Mbokani score the goals that boosted his team’s chances of ending the campaign triumphantly and cut the fallen Midlands aristocrats further adrift at the bottom of the table. With half the Premier League season gone, Villa have one foot in the Championship.
Villa came to Carrow Road with their condition already critical. Signs of recovery had been detected during Rémi Garde’s first seven matches in charge – and the run of two matches unbeaten prior to this was epic by the club’s recent standards – but Villa had still lost ground on the teams above them and urgently needed a victory, their only one of the campaign so far having been achieved way back in August.
Norwich began the day in the position that Villa dream of reaching: 17th. As he attempted to take a chunk out of the nine points separating Norwich and Villa, Garde made three alterations to the side that had drawn with West Ham, changing the centre of his defence – where Ciaran Clark came in for Joleon Lescott – and the head of his attack, with Rudy Gestede left on the bench as Scott Sinclair was deployed just behind Jordan Ayew.
Neil, meanwhile, made four switches to the Norwich team that lost at Tottenham Hotspur on Boxing Day. The most glaring inclusion in the opening stages, however, was a bad case of the jitters, as the nervousness of both teams resulted in a profusion of wayward passes.
Villa began slightly better, all the same. They were the first to hint at a goal, when the left-back Leandro Bacuna unleashed a 20-yard drive that Declan Rudd had to palm behind for a corner. Two minutes later a free-kick at the edge of the area gave Robbie Brady a chance to test the visiting goalkeeper – the amount of time that the defenders spent arguing over the accuracy of the referee’s orders regarding the wall’s distance being reflected in the pervading anxiety, as with Brady’s eventual shot.
Villa remained marginally more tidy than their disjoined hosts and Ayew brought another save from Rudd when he met a free-kick by Jordan Veretout with a header from 10 yards. The largely artless skirmish continued until the 24th minute, when Norwich seized the lead following their first piece of composed play near their opponent’s area.
Nathan Redmond exchanged a cute one-two with Brady and then checked his options before clipping a cross towards Dieumerci Mbokani near the penalty spot. Bacuna, having abandoned his position on the left, won the aerial duel for the ball but succeeded only in glancing it on to Howson, who took advantage of being free on the left-hand side of the box to volley the ball into the net from 10 yards.
Having watched his side toil in vain for a really clear opening, Garde must have been exasperated by the ease with which Villa allowed Norwich to take the lead. The Frenchman’s dismay almost deepened a few minutes later when none of his players were alert enough to stop Graham Dorrans from connecting with a low corner by Redmond. This time Villa were pardoned, as Dorrans fired wide from 10 yards.
Villa lacked thrust up front and solidity at the back but at least they were not short of spirit and endeavour. Their persistence might have been rewarded with a penalty early in the second half when Ayew tumbled under a challenge in the box from Alex Tettey but the referee saw nothing untoward.
Norwich’s play was more scrappy than usual but they looked the more dangerous side on the occasions when they did manage to piece together moves. Howson should have doubled their lead on the hour but sidefooted wide from 18 yards after Brad Guzan spilled a shot from Redmond.
Garde tried to stimulate his side by replacing Sinclair with Adama Traoré with half an hour to play. That was longer than the exciting young Spaniard had been given in previous outings and the hope was that the trickery and acceleration that he had shown briefly before would stimulate a late turnaround here.
After seeing a couple of crosses from Traoré headed away by the impressive Ryan Bennett, Garde decided to throw on a striker who could pose more threat in the air. On came Gestede with just over 20 minutes to play. Much bluster ensured from the visitors but nothing that truly stretched the home defence. Four minutes from time Mbokani topped off a valuable win for Norwich by nodding a cross from Wes Hoolahan into the net.
Guardian
