Aston Villa beat Stoke: Great way to start the season

Stoke lost three games at home last season. Stoke isn't an easy place to go. Today, we looked a lot more determined and you could say we wanted it more than Stoke. You couldn't say we wanted it more that often last season.

Overall, a good performance and three points, but there needs to be a mention about why. And for me, it was the new players.

Yes, Delph was good and Vlaar was very solid, but Senderos, Cissokho and Richardson were very influential. They were involved and I'd even go so far as to say the Roy Keane effect played a part.

But it's the first game of the season and in 90 minutes we only had 37% of the ball. It's a long season and next week will be an important match. We need to have the same determination, but we also need to see the football get better.

Quick mention for Weimann as he got the winner and while he didn't have the best first half, he scored and he did what he's paid to do. It's all we need from him.

I hope it does, but for now, I'm going to go and have a great Saturday night. We deserve it.

The players

Guzan, Hutton, Cissokho, Delph, Vlaar, Senderos, N'Zogbia (Grealish - 71' ), Westwood, Agbonlahor, Richardson and Weimann (Bacuna - 82' ).

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