I did try to warn you when I wrote about the eye of the storm on Saturday. I did try to lower expectations when I wrote about how Lambert has only had one season in the Premier League and I really did try in my season preview post to hammer home that there is no transition.
My point; we're not going to win the league. And yes, I could write a great post about how we can all make scrambled eggs but if you want to eat something special it takes time, but I don't think I need to add anything to that.
I do think it worth looking at some statistics from Saturday though because when starting to make something special, you dont just throw the eggs in a pan and for a while, even Shay Given was passing the ball out.
Stats
Okay, where to start? How about with shots. We had 13 shots in the game compared to the 8 from West Ham. Okay, they had one more on target, but we were not afraid of having a pop.
Next, passes and this is interesting. In the game we made 550 passes with an accuracy rate of 80% and yes, this is why we looked a so much better side than West Ham and on Saturday, I think I'm right in say that only Fulham and Arsenal played more passes.
The area we fell down in on Saturday for me was getting the ball to Darren Bent in a way that enabled him to have a shot. This is summed up when you look at how many crosses we had in the game; 13. When you play 451, you have to use the wings, it can't be all through the middle and if you're going to play with Charles N'Zogbia, you have to play him on the wing.
Changes
But when Gabby is fit, we all know his best position is on the left wing. We know that Albrighton can play on the right and if Lowton doesn't link up with him well enough, we have Lichaj waiting and we know he can.
Delph and El Ahmadi looked very good but playing two fairly defensive players means we need some attacking players and I'm not sure Stephen Ireland still wants it or has any fire in his belly. But for the first half an hour on Saturday, we looked in a different class than West Ham and come the return match at Villa Park, that will show.
What I'm getting at is this; it doesn't matter that we lost to West Ham. Yes, it isn't nice, but in the grand scheme of things, it means nothing.
The manager
I thought we started the game really well and I thought for 30 minutes we were excellent. But you can have all the ball you want but you've got to score. Some of the play, I was really happy with and some, like anything, you're not. But I can't fault the lads for effort. Their effort was excellent.
We tried, but there wasn't much in the game. I thought we looked bright but we've got to turn our possession into chances. If we can just get a finishing touch on that then we'll be okay.
I wasn't sure at the time but I've seen it on the tape and it's come off one of our lads so the referee's called it right. In terms of our lads reacting, the thing is it's the blink of an eye. So I can't fault them. They're young. We played a young team but their effort I can't fault. There will be mistakes like everybody else.
There were a lot of positives to take out of it. You pick yourself up and you go again. There's no hiding place. You have to win together and you have to lose together. I'm not one for a blame culture. If we lose, we lose together. If we win, then we win together.
Music at Villa Park
Before I go, you can vote on the music that is played at Villa Park as the players walk out and guess what, this is going to end horribly. It is sad to watch as the club try to do the right thing, only to mess it all up.
By all means go and vote on a poll here but it is just a poll. You have nine options but you also have the option to add in your own idea. But what happens to that when you submit your own song; do they start the poll all over again to make it fair or is one person somewhere saying yes or not to it, or actually, is it going anywhere.
But that is only where it starts to go wrong, it is wrong in so many others ways too. Because they've asked you to vote, in fact, they've asked any supporter of any club to vote, if the music choice is crap, they blame you. In fact, it doesn't matter how you vote, because it is just a click on a radio button, the decision could already be made and this is getting done to make it look like the supporters were involved.
I know a Liverpool fan show has voted this morning and seriously, a version of Bells are Ringing labelled a 'fans/club remix' is on the list. This could already be lost.