Aston Villa has climbed to provisional third place in the Barclays English Premier league following a tense 2-1 win over Midlands rivals West Bromwich Albion in an early kick-off at a freezing Villa Park. Martin O’Neill’s side overtook Manchester United into third place although the defending champions have a handful of games in hand. First half goals from former West Brom lad Curtis Davies and Gabriel Agbonlahor ensured that Villa get all three points in the very first Premier league match of 2009.

Frankly, it was the bottom side West Brom who came out of the blocks with real purpose and raided the Villa defence on a regular basis. It was against the run of play that the home side went ahead following a silly Paul Robinson corner. Although the Baggies survived two close range Villa efforts from the same corner as the ball was cleared off the line by James Morrison and Robert Greening, the ball fell to Gareth Barry who crossed into the box for Curtis Davis to nod home an impressive header past Scott Carson in the nineteenth minute. The signs were good as in this season Villa has won all those games in which they have taken the lead. The record continued as Gabriel Abonlahor scored the second goal four minutes into half time which also turned out to be the winner. West Brom belied their position at the bottom of the table by taking the battle to high-flying Aston Villa but as always in this cruel game, the side from the Hawthorns were hard done by when Agbonlahor ran into the Baggies defense without any answer and put the ball past Scott Carson who has to take the blame for making a horrible error under the sticks when he let the ball slip under his arms. Was it an own goal or will it be awarded to Gabbi Agbonlahor? That will be a point of discussion in the next few days.

Tony Mowbray’s side came flying out in the second half just they did in the first period but unlike the early minutes of the game, Albion reduced the margin through Scottish international James Morrison, who was also on target in a similar 2-1 defeat at the hands of the Villains at the Hawthorns back in September. The match turned into a typical derby delight as West Brom pressed for a deserved equalizer while the home side went on with their business trying to assert authority on the game. Both the goalkeepers became busy with Scott Carson atoning his earlier mistake by pulling off a couple of outstanding saves from Ashley Young and Steve Sidwell.

West Brom are deep in trouble with this loss as Tony Mowbray’s side remain in the bottom three and their hopes of a Premier League survival looking grim week by week. Yet the Baggies manager could take a lot of positives about the way his team battled against a well drilled Villa side right upto the final whistle and with a bit of luck could have salvaged a point on a bitingly cold day. As for Aston Villa, staying in the top four and earning a lucrative Champions League spot is a priority and given the consistency of Martin O’Neill’s boys, the Villa faithful can certainly hope for a tremendous season.