Philippe Senderos was the pick of the Aston Villa players in the 1-0 win over Stoke on Saturday (Picture: Getty Images)

There were plenty of sniggers around the Premier League when Paul Lambert signed Philippe Senderos, Aly Cissokho and Kieran Richardson.

But the Aston Villa boss had the last laugh after his new boys wiped the smile off the critics’ faces and came away from Stoke with a hard-earned victory.

Andi Weimann’s match-winner, while owing a fair bit to a fortunate bounce and slightly iffy goalkeeping, was a victory for persistence, and Villa had other big chances, either side of the goal, squandered by Gabby Agbonlahor and Leandro Bacuna.

But it was the defence who proved the doubters – including me – wrong with a terrific display, embodied by the granite-like performances of ‘Concrete Ron’ and the newly-monikered ‘Senderock’.




I admit to being pleasantly surprised by Senderos’s debut – he dug a trench alongside Vlaar, was excellent in the tackle and timely with his blocks, and allowed his skipper to concentrate on his own job. And, as we saw at the World Cup, the Dutchman is at his best when he has someone to share the load.

This was an entirely new back four, with greater experience – and it showed. Cissokho worked hard and Alan Hutton put in a shift on his return after two years in the wilderness.

It is still a defence with plenty of scope for individual mistakes. There will be times when we despair of them individually, but as a unit they were strong enough to see out the three points on this occasion.

The work ethic, which may or may not be down to the influence of new assistant boss Roy Keane, ran through the whole team, and the addition of Carlos Sanchez will add further steel.

Andi Weimann celebrates scoring Villa’s winner at the Britannia Stadium (Picture: AP)

The bodies-on-the-line attitude may be worth an extra five or six points over the course of a season, if it means we avoid the late goals that downgrade wins to draws or draws to defeats. Last term we lost seven points in the final 15 minutes of games – holding on to those results would have seen us close to the top half.

Any new-found solidity can’t come at the expense of goals. We have to get the transition between defence and attack spot on and finish chances when they come along.

Paul Lambert recognises this and is still saying he wants ‘one or two more’ in before the end of the month. A creative player and a finisher will be on his shopping list, and of course he still has Christian Benteke to come back.

Jack Grealish is another positive to emerge from the Britannia Stadium. The 18-year-old didn’t look out of place when he came on and blooding him gradually is the right move.

It’d be wrong to say Villa are only just starting to show some fight and desire.

We’ve had days like this before, where we think we’ve turned a corner. The back-to-back wins over Norwich and Chelsea in March, in which we showed first the clinical and then the resolute sides to our game, were not followed up by similar performances.



It’s important we build on the Stoke result, be more positive on our own turf and cluster points before a tough September.

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