On August 18, 2012, at 2 pm local time, the first game of the new Premier League season officially started.

Villa will travel to the London Olympic Stadium to challenge West Ham United away from home.

A total of 12 teams including Arsenal, Liverpool and Aston Villa will start playing at the same time. The traditional Premier League teams Chelsea, Manchester City, Manchester United and Tottenham are all scheduled to play in the evening and the next day.

The first game of the new season naturally attracts attention.

Unfortunately, there is no direct confrontation between traditional strong teams in the first round. The only close match is Newcastle's home game against Tottenham, which is scheduled to start at 4:30 pm on the 18th.

There is no competition between strong teams, which does not mean that Villa's opponents are poor. In fact, for Villa, who narrowly escaped relegation last season, any team they face is a strong opponent.

Although Jose showed enough talent to be trusted during training, Paul Lambert still chose to believe in veteran goalkeeper Given.

Jose entered the substitute list.

Except for No. 1 Given as the starting goalkeeper, the rest of the starting lineup is:

Defenders: No. 32 Nathan Baker, No. 4 Flair, No. 6 Ciaran Clark, No. 34 Lowton.

Midfielder: No. 10 N'Zogbia, No. 16 Delph, No. 8 Ahmadi, No. 7 Ireland.

Forwards: No. 9 Darren Bent, No. 14 Holman

This is a traditional 442 formation.

West Ham United head coach Allardyce sent out a 433 formation to challenge.

Goalkeeper: No. 22 Jaaskelainen.

Defenders: No. 3 McCartney, No. 19 Collins, No. 2 Winston Reed, No. 20 Demel.

Midfielder: No. 4 Nolan, No. 21 Dias, No. 16 Noble.

Forwards: No. 9 Carlton Cole, No. 14 Matthew Taylor, No. 12 Watts Te.

…

Since Jose failed to enter the starting lineup, the system did not bother to issue tasks.

There may be opportunities for substitutes in other positions, but for the goalkeeper position, unless there is an injury or a red card, the substitute goalkeeper will have to sit on the bench.

Watching the two sides on the field going back and forth, Jose's heart was filled with excitement and anticipation.

What is exciting is that he has finally become an official Premier League player. Although he is only a substitute, for Jose, he has taken an important first step.

Looking forward to it, of course, looking forward to being able to participate in it.

Of course, Jose also knows very well that because of his extremely young age, it is not easy to gain the approval of the head coach.

So Jose no longer thinks about when he will be able to play, but focuses on watching the game. He wants to learn more useful things from the performance of the two goalkeepers.

Soon, Jose discovered that whether it was Given or West Ham United's goalkeeper, their ability to predict the game was very good. Often, as soon as the opponent got the ball, they had already guessed the opponent's possible shooting route.

However, Jose also discovered their problem, that is, the speed of their saves, especially their movement, was half a beat slower, maybe because of their age.

In the 39th minute, Villa player Clark fouled on the right side of the penalty area and received the first yellow card of the game. He also gave the opponent a free kick opportunity on the right.

West Ham United player Watts-Te was responsible for taking the free kick opportunity.

Unexpectedly, Vaz-Ter did not shoot directly, but chose to pass to the center of the penalty area.

West Ham United player Nolan grabbed the first goal, and he completed the header pass in the small penalty area.

The ball flew towards the left side of the goal, but Given, who was standing on the right, had no time to react.

The ball went in.

In this way, West Ham United scored the first goal of the game and the only goal of the game by relying on a set kick in the 40th minute.

For this goal, Jose made a hypothesis.

If he were on the field, his positioning choice would be the same as Given's, close to the right side of the goal, in order to prevent Watts-Te from shooting directly.

In addition, relying on God's perspective, Jose can capture Watts-Te's passing route immediately, but if he wants to rush from the right side of the goal to the left side to make a save, he can only do it by using stunts.

Of course, Jose ignored one thing, that is, the reason why Nolan could easily score with a header was because Vlaar, who was responsible for marking him, was distracted.

Football is a team sport. You may be able to win half a game by relying on one or two people, but it will never last long.

Paul Lambert didn't care about the team's defeat. He thought it was just bad luck.

Jose quietly followed the team bus back to Villa's training base.

Of course, major players like Darren Bent have their own cars and drive home by themselves.

Since he failed to get a chance to play, Jose became even harder during training.

…

A week later, at 2 pm on Saturday, August 25, the second round of the Premier League started again.

Villa will face Premier League powerhouse Everton at home.

Everton finished seventh last season, their strength is evident, and their Fellaini is a star player.

It is a pity that Jose still did not get a chance to start. He once again sat on the bench as the substitute goalkeeper.

On the contrary, No. 22 goalkeeper Guzan got the chance to start, while Ji Wen failed to make the eighteen-man roster.

In addition to the goalkeeper, Paul Lambert also made three adjustments. Forward Delfonesso, midfielders Hurd and Bannan entered the starting list, while Holman, Ireland, and Delph entered the substitute list.

Regarding Paul Lambert's decision, Jose could only obey and could not even show any dissatisfaction.

People originally wanted to take a look at the performance of Jose, a young goalkeeper worth the same as Hazard, but seeing that he did not get a chance to start, they stopped paying attention.

People will turn more attention to tomorrow's focus game, Liverpool vs. defending champion Manchester City at home.

The match between Villa and Everton was one-sided from the beginning.

Only 3 minutes into the game, Everton scored with Naismith assisting Pienaar.

Guzan had no power to resist Pienaar's shot.

Before Villa could react, Everton scored another victory in the 31st minute. Jagielka assisted Fellaini and scored with a header.

The visiting team Everton leads Aston Villa at home 2-0.

The mood of Villa fans suddenly reached freezing point.

However, what disappointed them even more was that at the end of the first half, Everton player Baines assisted his teammate Jelavic to score.

At the end of the first half, Everton led Villa by a huge margin 3-0.

During the halftime break, a large number of Villa fans began to leave the stadium.

Regarding such a result, Jose could only stand quietly aside, he did not want to end up with a harsh crime.

Trailing 0-3, the most anxious person is undoubtedly head coach Paul Lambert. Although the club gave him the task of avoiding relegation, he lost most of the games to his opponents at home, which is a bit hard to explain to the fans.

At the beginning of the second half, Paul Lambert decided to make adjustments first. He took a look at the players on the bench, skipped Jose, and finally decided to replace Holman first and removed Delfoneso, who had an average performance.

However, Lambert's adjustment not only did not bring any advantage, but in the 58th minute, Everton got a chance to counterattack. Clark, who was unable to catch up, fouled behind and received the first red card of the game.

Villa plays one less player and is a crucial central defender.

There was no other way, so Paul Lambert had to make another substitution. Central defender Lehi came on as a substitute and midfielder Hird was substituted.

In the end, relying on Lihai's assist, Ahmadi recovered a goal in the 74th minute without losing face.

For this game, Jose had many thoughts in mind. First of all, there were too few restrictions on Fellaini, so that he was allowed to use his header to achieve success.

In addition, Jose felt that Clark's foul was unnecessary. If he were present, even if the opponent faced him alone, he would be 50% sure to deal with it.

The losing streak at the start of the game cast a thick layer of gloom over the atmosphere within the Villa team.
Chapter completed!