Speaking of England managers, it was nice to see that Martin O'Neill prepared for the job by abandoning football on the ground for a long-ball game that allowed Villa to exploit John Carew's almost total dominance in the air over our centre backs. Still for all their pressure Villa didn't create a great deal and we came through a severe test with a very welcome three points thanks to excellent goals from Flamini and Adebayor.
Manuel Almunia - 8 - Possibly his best game for the club with safe handling and some positive punching. England's No 1?
Bacary Sagna - 7 - Dangerous in attack in the first half, he was given a severe test by young Ashley Young in the second, but held his ground well.
Kolo Toure - 6 - A difficult afternoon but helped his captain hold the line at the back.
William Gallas - 7 - For all the whining of the Setanta commentary team, I was quite happy to see William get mad with the world and the referee in particular. Led by example.
Gael Clichy - 7 - Villa seemed to determined to attack down their left, but when they did have a go at Gael he was more than up to it.
Emmanuel Eboue - 7 - His most productive game in a while, but I'm really not in the mood to praise him too much.
Mathieu Flamini - 7 - Relished the freedom to get forward more, fantastic finish and only 9 behind Cesc in the midfielder's golden boot.
Lassana Diarra - 6 - Excellent in the first half he was swamped in the second and at one point gave the ball away in the most dangerous of positions. Still settling in.
Tomas Rosicky - 6 - Flitted in and out like a flitting in and outy thing.
Alexander Hleb - 8 - Excellent for the 60 minutes he was on but once again kicked out of the game - why is there a shortage of skilful English footballers again?
Emmanuel Adebayor - 7 - Took his goal superbly but suffered from the complete lack of service in the second half.
Subs:
Theo Walcott - 5 - Big job to fill in for Hleb and wasn't really up to it.
Gilberto Silva - 7 - Those who would dispatch Gilberto from the club would do well to watch his cameo appearance here. We need his height for one thing.
Nicklas Bendtner - n/a