Ron Vlaar fouls Victor Moses to hand Stoke an injury-time penalty against Aston Villa (Picture: Reuters)

Ron Vlaar’s moment of lunacy in conceding an injury-time penalty against Stoke cost Tim Sherwood a point in his first game as Aston Villa boss.

More worryingly, the defeat saw us slip to 19th in the Premier League. This wretched season can be largely placed at Paul Lambert’s door, but what could eventually tip us over the edge is the succession of basic individual errors made by some of the players.

Vlaar’s idiocy on Saturday wasn’t the first mistake to have haunt us – these five errors cost six to eight points, which could prove crucial come May…



Benteke sees red (1-0 up v Tottenham, lost 1-2)

What could have been nine points from four games in November ended up being only three, and it all started with Christian Benteke’s brain freeze. At 1-0 up on 65 minutes, the Belgian allowed himself to be wound up by Ryan Mason and the subsequent shove saw him sent-off. A man down, our extra workload told as Nacer Chadli scored an 84th-minute equaliser before a tired Carlos Sanchez gave away the 90th-minute free-kick from which Harry Kane struck the winner.


Weimann and Agbonlahor’s defending (1-0 up v Southampton, drew 1-1)

A few weeks later, Gabby Agbonlahor had put Villa ahead against the Saints, before a side drained of all confidence inevitably withdrew into its own shell and allowed the visitors to dominate. The folly of using Andi Weimann as a wide player was exposed when he was outstripped by Ryan Bertrand but his clever cut-back would still not have reached Nathaniel Clyne had Agbonlahor been concentrating. As it was, the striker was on his heels and Clyne nipped in to net an equaliser.

Gabby Agbonlahor (on floor) reflects on his part in Southampton’s equaliser scored by Nathaniel Clyne (Picture: Reuters)

Okore’s late penalty (1-0 up v Burnley, drew 1-1)

The November misery was compounded the following weekend. Again, Villa went 1-0 up – Joe Cole on target – and were on course for their first victory in nine games. But then Jores Okore brought down Lukas Jutkiewicz inside the box late on and Danny Ings did the rest. Okore, who has largely been excellent this season, also gave away the free-kick from which Swansea scored the only goal of the game on Boxing Day.

Okore and Delph’s casual defending (1-1 v Chelsea, lost 1-2)

The Dane was also partly responsible for a carbon copy of the Southampton equaliser when Chelsea came to Villa Park earlier this month. Once again it was left-back crossing for right-back, aided by a prostrate Okore making a hash of a clearance, while Fabian Delph compounded matters by lazily wafting a leg at the ball and allowing it to reach Branislav Ivanovic. The end result was that Chelsea went back in front and went on to control the game.

Ron Vlaar’s crazy tackle (1-1 v Stoke, lost 1-2)

And our club captain clearly hadn’t learned from this catalogue of errors when he too lost his mind on Saturday. A draw was looking the most likely result until Vlaar miscontrolled the ball on his left foot and presented it to Victor Moses. The ugly lunge that followed was borne partly of frustration but also sums up a lack of mental fortitude in a squad which is getting an easy ride from some. Sherwood needs to cut out the errors – or they could send us into the Championship.

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