How Aston Villa Can Respond To Chelsea Come FA Cup Time

As we all know, last Saturday was not a good day at Stamford Bridge for Aston Villa; a usually-strong team succumbed to a crushing 7-1 annihilation at the hands of Chelsea.

It was a defeat for all involved with the eleven men who took the field to represent the finest in Birmingham.

Everyone from the manager and assistant manager to the physio and fitness coach, from nutritionist to the psychologist, and from the team bus driver to the tea ladies at Bodymoor Heath (Villa's training ground), it truly was a defeat for all involved.

And with an FA Cup semifinal against the same opposition at Wembley to come in less than two weeks time, the question is, how can manager Martin O'Neill get his men to bounce back from such a bitter failure?

Here is some speculation into what O'Neill might be doing to respond to Chelsea's demoralising demolition of his side.

Detail

One of the most obvious things of course is the video analysis session, reviewing the match and seeing where the deleterious mistakes were made.

The players will need to know what exactly they did wrong, i.e. whether they were incorrectly positioned defensively, did not apply O'Neill's man-marking tactics appropriately, lacked focus in attack and defence, made unusually silly yet simple errors, etc.

Once that information is acquired, they'll need to know how to fully correct such errors to ensure they don't happen again.

And as soon as they know in theory what they did wrong and how they should correct it, Martin O'Neill et al. will presumably recreate all the match situations where they conceded on the training pitch.

The players will most likely go through each situation, the first time emphasising what they did wrong, and then secondly applying the corrective measures to the situation.

So therefore, instead of the incorrect "practice makes perfect" cliché, Martin O'Neill will get his players correcting their on-pitch mistakes because of one crucial phrase:

"Perfect practice with the knowledge of results and/or feedback makes perfect." 

The Mind

In every sport at an elite level, the coach earns his money through unlocking and solving the psychological problems latent in an unsuccessful athlete, and turning them into a successful juggernaut.

An area which Martin O'Neill might have to work overtime is working in conjunction with the sports psychologist to eradicate faulty beliefs in his players, and doing his best to take the stress off his men.

In the immediate aftermath of the game, where the players were totally dejected and felt inadequate due to such an unexpected, shocking loss, O'Neill would've needed to dish up some self-serving bias, i.e. telling the players they lost because of external reasons.

Obviously the players would know they didn't perform well, but by putting some of the blame onto the weather conditions, the pitch, the referee, etc, the Villains would at least sustain a bit of vital confidence and self-esteem that will keep them encouraged and motivated for the FA Cup semifinal against the same opponents.

And now a few days after the match, it's important for O'Neill and the psychologist to apply cognitive dissonance, i.e. getting rid of incorrect beliefs (e.g. "we lost because the Chelsea players are simply much better than us") and replacing them with positive thoughts (e.g. "we beat them 2-1 at home, and the FA Cup match is a new beginning; we can win this").

Through the combination of cognitive dissonance and verbal persuasion, the Aston Villa backroom staff can help the players regain and improve their confidence, self-esteem and self-efficacy.

Along with a good result next Saturday at the Reebok Stadium against Bolton Wanderers, if the Aston Villa coaching and science staff can work their psychological powers on the players, they will no doubt be ready and much better prepared to face Chelsea in the FA Cup at Wembley than they were in the Premier League at Stamford Bridge.

As the saying goes, winning breeds confidence. If the Villains can regain their confidence and head into the FA Cup match "all psyched up" as it were, it will be the perfect way to respond to the dispiriting 7-1 annihilation.

Why? Because it will knock the confidence out of Chelsea.

If you destroy your opponents 7-1 and they come back two weeks later even more confident despite you beating them so heavily, it can be slightly demoralising.

How do you beat a team who are more confident, motivated and determined than you are? Quite simply, you don't.