The Doc's Diagnosis: Villa v West Ham United

That first home match against Reading may have felt like a new dawn all those weeks ago in late summer. In fact, it was no more than the dawning of a new hope.

Under new and ambitious ownership, with committed and intelligent management, the future had to be bright: but none of us was quite sure how that future was going to look and feel.

The 41-thousand plus who turned up at a noisy Villa Park yesterday got the first taste of the real "new dawn". I think the atmosphere in the stadium topped even the Reading match, brimming with expectation and excitement, and with a little pinch of spice added by the short-lived Hammers debut of one Matthew Upson.

Let's satisfy the cynics and the knockers first. It wasn't a vintage Villa performance, and one or two individual displays may have raised a concerned eyebrow or two.

By the end, when Villa had sloppily let West Ham back into the game, the real claret-and-blues had only Thomas Sorensen to thank for the three points. So that's the cynics and knockers happy.

However, this is both a brand new and at the same time a half-finished Villa side. If anyone arrived in B6 expecting a performance of sublime attacking fluency and defensive composure, then they were both physically and mentally in the wrong place.

This game was all about demonstrating intent: showing that the new Villa are going to play with both skill and aggression; showing that they are going to play with both pace and width. That such intent was shown effectively and in a way that secured three points should give us cause for great satisfaction.

Let's look at the home debuts of John Carew and Ashley Young. For a big man, Carew has good feet and demonstrated tremendous mobility. JPA can hold a ball up, but he doesn't stretch a defence across its full width the same way Carew did yesterday and he doesn't possess the pace which will have surprised so many at Villa Park yesterday afternoon. Carew doesn't look quick - but he is. Very.

And Young? Almost universally viewed by the media as a risky and over-priced investment, I wonder how many of the nation's Chief Football Writers will already have started to revise those opinions.

Young has fabulous vision and fantastic, instinctive ball control. He thinks and reacts sharply and looks very quick over the first ten yards. But for a fine reflex save from Carroll in the first half, he would also be looking at a goal on both his home and away debuts.

Even falling short of that record, it was his vision and touch that put John Carew in for Villa's winner yesterday.

For the first time in the best part of two years, Villa showed that they have the attacking flair, pace and creativity to get behind a defence. Sure, that wasn't the Premier League's greatest defence, but just at the moment who cares?

What I really liked yesterday was the way the space created by Carew and Young made it so much easier for the midfield to play. Already on a high after a deserved England recall, Gareth Barry seemed to enjoy looking to find Carew down the channels (or even down the touchline) and Ashley Young was persistently dropping and showing for the ball from the central midfielders McCann and Petrov.

This was progress - worlds apart from a flat-footed Angel or an unbalanced Baros.

For those who were watching closely yesterday, there was a curious truth unfolding on the pitch. John Carew and Ashley Young settled almost too quickly and easily into their Villa Park stride and, in my view, their immediate leadership of the line may have unsettled both Petrov and Agbonlahor.

Firstly, the fact that Young often dropped off Carew and into "the hole" to pick up the ball seemed to push Petrov far deeper towards the Villa back four and produced a strange performance from him - more McCann that Petrov, if the truth be told. We saw some great running, tackling and fight from Petrov, but his attacking flame was strangely dimmed.

Equally, with Carew frequently getting wide onto balls from the the full backs, Gabby Agbonlahor seemed a little lost positionally, and this was a muted display from him.

There may, of course, be another reason. We bumped into Gabby after the game and he looked utterly exhausted: I suspect it is time to give the lad the rest he has earned. But it does look as if the work to be done in "gelling" the new side together is in getting the roles of Petrov and Agbonlahor clear in the new shape, not so much in settling Carew and Young into their new roles.

Phil Bardsley, who so far has made a lot of friends since joining from Man Utd, was frankly off-colour all afternoon and looked far from the player we have seen in recent games. But when it comes to full backs, Bardsley's performance was always going to be eclipsed by another brilliant, brilliant 90 minutes from Freddie Bouma.

Quite what alchemy O'Neill, Roberston and Walford are using to engender this transformation I cannot imagine, but Freddie is now looking a very, very fine left back indeed and seems to be getting better and better. No wonder Samuel is considering his options because with Bouma on this form, he can aspire no further than the Villa bench.

So, having I guess made their decision on about 85 minutes, the sponsors got it right in awarding Man of the Match to Bouma. And that would have stayed the correct decision had not three wonder saves from Sorensen ultimately won the game for Villa.

Those saves were all the more remarkable seeing as some sort of rigor mortis must have been setting in to Sorensen's limbs by that stage, so untroubled had he been by anything West Ham offered up front. His contribution must be recognised in saving the game, and it is below.

The new dawn has begun. You know what? Villa can attack!

SORENSEN 9; Bardsley 6; Mellberg 7; Cahill 7; Bouma 9; Agbonlahor 6; McCann 7; Petrov 6; Barry 8; Young 8; Carew 8

Man-of the-Match: SORENSEN - saved the three points