1. Aston Villa have now recovered from that confidence-sapping losing streak
Aston Villa’s six-game losing streak, which ended with a home defeat against Tottenham Hotspur, siphoned a lot of confidence out of the camp as they dropped into the bottom-three.
They have since been on a road to recovery and this win certainly helped. A good second-half in which Aston Villa’s central midfielders impressively took risks to release their strikers with early incisive passes meant they created a healthy amount of chances and could have scored more goals if Kasper Schmeichel had not had such a good game.
Now Paul Lambert’s men are unbeaten in five games, they moved up to 11th in the table and their two recent wins against Crystal Palace and Leicester City leave them with a feel-good factor in their camp.
2. Brave Schmeichel will be key to Leicester City’s chances of surviving
Schmeichel was one of the best players on the pitch and certainly the best Leicester player in this game. His attitude throughout the season has been even more impressive. In this game, he bravely committed to a couple of dangerous crosses despite the personal risks attached.
He plays with a sense of urgency that some of his teammates need to find if they are to survive the drop this season. They are bottom of the table and a lot of teams have better quality in their ranks, but the relegation battle is usually more about which team has more players who desperately want to survive. Schmeichel is certainly one of them for the Foxes.
3. It was a lucky day for Alan Hutton
This was a game that Hutton could enjoy because he had the freedom to charge forward when attacking and, when he took the gamble to get all the way into the final-third, he sneaked behind Jeff Schlupp for the winning goal. His first strike in four years.
Then came the flashpoint. Paul Konchesky fouled Hutton close to the touchline. Konchesky promptly walked over to Hutton while he was on the floor and made a comment that sparked a furious reaction.
Hutton jumped to his feet and the two players went nose-to-nose. The Villa defender then pushed Konchesky in the chest. Hutton, in other words, ended up as the aggressor and he was fortunate to escape with just a yellow while Konchesky got sent-off.
4. There were mixed performances from Leicester’s deputies
Leicester City have recently settled to a back-four that includes Wes Morgan and Ritchie de Laet. In this game, De Laet and Morgan could not start due to illness and suspension respectively, so it gave Liam Moore and Danny Simpson a chance to stake their claims.
Simpson had a great game at right-back, his recovery runs were good and he fared well against a pacy Gabriel Agbonlahor. Moore had a fairly solid game but he was culpable for Aston Villa’s equaliser as he failed to track Ciaran Clark.
5. Leonardo Ulloa’s goal was the biggest positive for City as they brace for a long December
It is common knowledge that every team in the relegation battle needs their chief striker to be scoring regularly and Nigel Pearson must have been concerned with Ulloa’s 10-game goal drought. To be fair to the Argentinian striker, the service to him has been the main problem but he still needed a goal to get his confidence back.
The Foxes have a tough run of fixtures until the New Year, which includes game against defending champions Manchester City, high-flying West Ham, as well as unpredictable top sides like Tottenham and Liverpool.
Chances will mostly likely be at a premium in those games so they needed their powerful striker to boost his confidence with a goal ahead of that testing fixture list.
