Keep the Optimism at Villa Park

Aston Villa 1-4 Manchester United - the epitome of Wayne Rooney.

We have all seen Wayne Rooney be fouled or tackled and retaliate with menace but few predicted the retaliation he portrayed at Villa Park.

The backlash of England's defeat in Russia was evident through Rooney's play from start to finish.

Aston Villa on the other hand proved that it was same old - providing fans with belief and excitement only to be brought back down to earth.

The season so far has shown that Villa can - on their day be 'a force' but unfortunately consistency has never been something Villa have been good at in recent years. 

During pre-season Villa defeated Italian champions Inter Milan 3 - 0 and on the opening day of the EPL they were unfortunate that Liverpool were awarded a controversial free kick late on which Steven Gerrard finished with panache.

So with a good 0-0 performance up at Newcastle followed by a win against Fulham and a five goal drubbing at lowly Wrexham in the Carling Cup, the supporters had real hope of a decent season.

Villa then met Chelsea at home and shocked the country but not so much some of the Villa faithful. A great win against Chelsea was what was in the making following the performances given by the team the weeks preceding the match.

Villa were unlucky to lose against Sven's Man City but bounced back with a win against highly rated Everton. Villa's spirits were again very high but as is quite often lost to Leicester City in the Carling Cup and the optimism crushed once again.

If going 4-1 up against a talented Spurs side did not raise optimism - losing the 3 points and drawing the game certainly buried it. A solid performance against West Ham followed but the highs and lows and ups and downs will probably be the final story for Villa, come the end of the season with Martin O'Neill rueing the inconsistency of the team.

There is an evident pattern emerging in that after a good performance there will surely follow a poor one.

Man Utd was always going to be a stern test and a test that not many would have expected anything other than a defeat for Villa. The game started brightly for Villa and when they took the lead - that dreaded optimism returned and the inevitable followed!

Wayne Rooney and Co were formidable and it illustrated the difference there is outside the top 4 teams in the EPL. There was hope for Villa to close in on a European place this season after a good performances against Liverpool (despite losing) and beating Chelsea and many supporters were hopeful and 'optimistic'!

Martin O'Neil must continue to motivate his players for every match but take a different approach for those games that follow on from good performances.

The run in to Christmas for Villa looks 'optimistic'. Arsenal are the only top four team they will face and the rest look beatable if they play to the top standard they have shown so far.

Birmingham will be tricky because of the 'derby' tag it will hold but it will be good to see a win at St Andrews for Villa and bury the nightmares of the previous fixtures there.

November sees 3 away games against the single home match and this is for Villa to step up and push for that European place they deserve and stop crushing their fan's 'optimism' and give reason to be optimistic!