West Brom head coach Pepe Mel bemoaned his team's
"incredible" inability to beat Aston Villa, despite scoring three
times at Villa Park.
The away side raced into a two-goal lead on Wednesday
thanks to a marvellous long-range half-volley from Chris Brunt and an own-goal
courtesy of Fabian Delph, but Villa were soon back in it as Andreas Weimann
pulled one back before Leandro Bacuna equalised.
Delph made amends for his earlier error with a powerful
drive not long before the break, but back came Mel’s side as Youssouf Mulumbu
slotted away confidently in the 43rd minute.
The second half was a comparatively tame affair as it
produced just the solitary goal, but it was enough for Villa to win 4-3 thanks
to a Christian Benteke's penalty that left Mel wondering how his side failed to
earn even a point.
He said: "The first 15 minutes is good for us but it
is incredible to score three goals away and get no points.
"We need to improve, for example the first goal is a
mistake and we need to improve.
"I believe our problem in this game was Benteke, not
our defence. We worked all week on the direct play of Aston Villa, I think that
this has been our problem."
Mel was also disappointed to see striker Nicolas Anelka
leave the pitch midway through the first half with a knee injury, conceding
that he may need to find a replacement for the Frenchman before the transfer
window shuts on Friday.
"He (Anelka) has a lot of stitches in his knee, at
the moment he is out of Sunday (against Liverpool)," the Spaniard added.
"I don't know (how bad it is), (on Thursday) we will know a lot more.
"We must try to work to solve the problem that the
injury, or ban, to Anelka would cause.
"If we have the possibility to sign a player during
the transfer window I believe we should do so."
Culled from Soccerway
