BENTEKE SEALS VILLA THRILLER
Striker edges seven-goal rollercoaster
Villa Park played host to a chaotic west Midlands derby settled by a Christian Benteke penalty to leave new West Bromwich head coach Pepe Mel with a furrowed brow.
six goals in a helter- skelter first half were followed by a scarcely credible miss and a controversial penalty that gave Villa the victory they just about deserved on the balance of play.
Villa manager Paul lambert was purring at the final whistle. His team had fallen two goals behind in the opening nine minutes but fought back to take three points that lifted them eight clear of the drop zone.
Mel’s insistence on a carefree shoot- on- sight policy was exposed as horribly flawed as his team blasted themselves in both feet.
as much as Villa deserve credit for clawing themselves back into a game that appeared to be slipping away from them, it was glaring deficiencies in the visitors’ rearguard that reinforced relegation fears at the Hawthorns.
This result will come as some relief to Villa fans, who witnessed the club’s first victory over albion in seven games.
lambert said: ‘ Two goals down after nine minutes in a derby where that pressure doubles and you can say it’s tough. so to turn it around from there was fantastic.
‘The way we did it was fantastic. it was really unpredictable and scoring four goals at home will please a lot of people.’
Mel is facing a testing few days. He admitted his club are now in a relegation fight and made it clear he would like additions to his squad before the transfer window closes. That should make for an interesting conversation with his paymasters.
‘it’s incredible to score three goals away from home and get no points,’ he said. ‘We need to improve our mistakes.’
nobody was more culpable than centre half diego lugano, who ended up hauling Benteke to the floor to concede a spotkick that referee Mark Clattenburg called correctly. That compounded lugano’s horror show.
Minutes earlier he had headed wide from five yards when unmarked from Chris Brunt’s free-kick. it will be of little comfort that he was not the only culprit in the visitors’ defence.
it had all looked so different after nine minutes. Villa were not immune to defensive errors, giving the ball away on halfway from their own throw after four minutes. liam Ridgewell’s firsttime pass found Brunt, who smashed a magnificent volley into the net from 30 yards.
The hosts conceded another after more sloppiness. Brunt’s quick free-kick enabled James Morrison to get a run on marker Karim El ahmadi and Fabian delph succeeded only in diverting the resulting cross past Brad guzan at his near post.
But Mel’s team soon trumped Villa’s defensive frailties. guzan pumped a free-kick forward and lugano, falling back, could only head the ball behind him. andreas Weimann was waiting and lobbed it home to begin the hosts’ fightback.
in the 25th minute, it was all square and, of all the bizarre goals, this one was the biggest comedy of errors. leandro Bacuna tried to sidefoot Matthew lowton’s cross home from four yards with the whole goal to aim at but caught the ball wrong and it spun up before hitting him on the head as he fell back and looping over the line. if he attempts to replicate the finish every day between here and Christmas, he will fail.
Villa were on the front foot and, in the 37th minute, guzan pumped a ball towards Benteke, who headed it to his left, where delph was waiting. The midfielder stepped round steven Reid and smashed a fine finish into the net off the underside of the bar.
But albion put together the best move of the match, involving Victor anichebe, Morrison and Youssouf Mulumbu to level two minutes before half-time as Mulumbu slotted through guzan’s legs. Two Villa defenders ran into each other trying to stop Morrison’s pass to sum up the quality of the defending.
The pace relented after the break but lugano cut a forlorn figure when he headed Brunt’s free-kick wide from four yards.
Moments later, he wrestled Benteke to the floor, Clattenburg pointed to the spot and Benteke did the rest.