Full Speed Ahead: Gabby Agbonlahor and the Race to Break a Record

Full Speed Ahead: Gabby Agbonlahor and the Race to Break a Record

After Christian Benteke grabbed the headlines with his hat-trick against Sunderland, the fact we had another record-breaker on the pitch seemed to pass a lot of the national media by. Record-breaking at Aston Villa this season is nothing new, as the eight-goal drubbing at Stamford Bridge can testify, but lost in the slipstream of Benteke’s goal flurry and the biggest home victory since giving the Noses five of the best was Gabriel Agbonlahor’s seventh league goal of the season.

Seven isn’t the number we’re celebrating here, though. It will have been noted by all but the youngest Villa fans that Agbonlahor’s lightning dash and finish past Simon Mignolet took him past Dwight Yorke’s Premier League scoring record for the club, putting him on sixty-one league goals for the team he’s supported all his life. He’s got a fair bit of catching up to do to emulate Billy Walker’s all-goals record of 244, but in an era when a top-level striker generally hangs around for a few seasons and then gets sold because they’re scoring too much or too little, the record Agbonlahor earned with his late strike is a thumbs-up to his ability to change with the times.

Gabby has played under seven managers at Aston Villa since his debut in March 2006, and when you consider the flux the club has been in during that time, it’s little wonder it seems to have taken so long for him to reach any kind of scoring record for the club. However, Agbonlahor’s Villa career has polarised the club’s support: he’s either tolerated because of his affiliation as a youth, or actively disliked because he doesn’t put enough chances away. Both of those reasons are relevant, but in isolation neither tells us much about why he’s hung around when every other player of the pre-O’Neill era has become a distant memory.

It used to be said that Gabriel Agbonlahor’s only asset was his pace, and I’m sure were the early evidence of his Villa career put to him, he would probably agree his finishing let him down. However, the first any of us heard of Gabby, he was blitzing all kinds of scoring records at youth level, so we assumed when he did break onto the scene, we had the next Gary Shaw to accommodate. A goal on his debut as a sub in a sorry defeat at Everton only intensified that belief; at the end of the O’Leary reign, a little excitement was always welcome.

Under Martin O’Neill, Agbonlahor initially took time to find his true place as the team struggled to match the hype of the Randy Lerner buyout. He scored at Stamford Bridge in a draw when Chelsea were supreme, but he actually scored more than you remember: consolations against the top teams, the odd goal in two against the also rans. However, he managed to open the scoring in the celebrated home game against Sheffield United, in front of a capacity crowd and the European Cup winning side of 1982; a neat bit of synchronicity that had Villa fans hoping he could take that scoring record into double figures for 2007/08.

He did, too. If the younger Agbonlahor managed to nudge ahead because of his pace, the more experienced footballer began to show what he could actually do with his football brain. His notable contributions in an eleven goal season were a barnstorming drive and lash against Chelsea in a fantastic 2-0 win (it didn’t finish Mourinho at Chelsea, but Roman Abramovich couldn’t have wanted to see that maniacal grin on Doug Ellis’s face ever again) and of course, his two goals in the Blues games. The first, in which he flicked a delicious Ashley Young cross into the far corner a minute after clearing off the line, led to mass hysteria for perhaps the first time at St Andrews, and the second was the icing on the cake of the 5-1 victory we still talk of today. I had the aftermath of both goals pinned up on my work noticeboard for years, as a permanent reminder of the true order of things.

But it was Agbonlahor’s partnership with the aforementioned Young that saw things start to come together for Gabby as a top-level footballer. The O’Neill years were Agbonlahor’s best, as the potent forward line of him and Young, alongside the battering ram of John Carew, the muscular contributions of James Milner and the assured touch of Gareth Barry made us a great counter-attacking unit. In particular, it was the energy of Agbonlahor and Milner, pulling back lines apart for the incisive runs of Young to cross from, which created havoc for what was essentially a meat-and-potatoes formation to flourish from.

It was notable that Agbonlahor was a Martin O’Neill kind of player: wedded to the club, obviously good friends with Ashley Young (witness their celebrations following goals against Arsenal and Birmingham City) and he ran all day. But surprisingly this was a time when fans began to turn slightly against Gabby, seeing him as a one-dimensional player who needed too many chances to score. When O’Neill’s tactics were worked out by cannier managers, the home-grown player was one of the first to take stick, because he didn’t have the flair of an Ashley Young or the strength of a John Carew.

However, not many people credit Agbonlahor with acknowledging this, and he began to bulk up in order to become more than just blistering speed. Being asked to run the channels, it was imperative he gained the ability to hold off full-backs, so he began to bulk up and work on his finishing, and as the final O’Neill season progressed, we saw a perfect hat-trick on the opening day of the season, a cheeky back-flick in the League Cup against Cardiff, a strong header to beat Manchester United at Old Trafford for the first time since before he was born and of course, another derby smash-and-grab.

Losing a manager who obviously rated him highly, coupled with the gradual loss of an influential unit around him pushed Gabby into the wilderness. From a promising England debutant to a puffed-out proxy winger, Agbonlahor looked all at sea under Gerard Houllier and Alex McLeish. The goals he did score looked more like the result of persistence rather than natural skill, and none of us would have been surprised to see him leave during this time.

But I’m glad he didn’t, because Paul Lambert has Gabby smiling again, being the closest manager to Martin O’Neill tactics-wise. Agbonlahor’s job is simple: run all day on one side of Christian Benteke, and snaffle any scraps when you get the chance. The wobbly season we’ve had means it hasn’t always worked, but he’s the right size again, and he’s got the pace that mesmerised us back again. Looking at his finish against Sunderland, I was reminded of that burst of acceleration against Arsenal in 2008.

Gabriel Agbonlahor is no enigma, he’s just a reliable forward. Aston Villa are a club that don’t see enough of them, and so while Christian Benteke grabs the glory, we should be happy the lad from Erdington is there to help him do it. He’s Villa, he’s a record holder, and that’s all there is to it.

Chris Stanley