Villa dominated the game and could even have scored more, and to be honest, it's all too depressing to write about.
Where do you even start? On paper, with Seb Larsson out injured, Blues picked an attacking side designed, one would imagine, to put Villa on the back foot. Mauro Zarate replaced the ineffective-of-late Mikael Forssell, whilst Cameron Jerome's over-hyped cameo on the right against Everton when he replaced Larsson last week meant he kept his place on that side of the midfield. As I say, on paper it was very, very attacking (Gary McSheffrey and Jerome on the flanks with Zarate and James McFadden up front). On reflection, it was naive in the extreme.
Blues appeared to have given no thought to actually utilising the system. Jerome was barely used as an outlet (and didn't set about making anything happen himself), whilst Zarate and McFadden both dropped into deeper positions as individuals to try and effect the play, but did so with no thought to a system or any team-play. As such, Blues' forward play was a mess. Consequently, possession was surrendered far too easily and Villa were allowed to build and build facing minimal midfield opposition as Jerome and McSheffrey are basically forwards and Mehdi Nafti and Fabrice Muamba are not in the same class as Gareth Barry and Nigel Reo-Coker. As I say, unless there was a definite ploy, rather than a case of the Steve Bruce's and figuring "if we put lots of forwards on, we'll be ok", it was a naive team selection. This wasn't a team who had looked vulnerable lately that Blues were facing - they'd won their last two games by an aggregate score of 10-0, and as such had to be treated with some respect. They weren't though.
In a derby, much of of the contest is decided by who wins the individual battles, as certain players will be inspired and certain players will be overawed. McSheffrey versus Mellberg wasn't so much of a battle, but an exhibition in defending. Barry, who like Mellberg was playing in his final derby game between these clubs before he joins a big club, was equally immense in midfield, whilst John Carew was literally unplayable up front. Blues didn't know whether to stand off him, compete with him or whatever. It didn't matter - he was incredible.
For Blues, from back to front, no one was good enough (with the possible exception of the one glimmer of light to come out of this sorry mess - substitute Olivier Kapo). David Murphy's distribution was shocking. Liam Ridgewell was beyond poor - some of his powder-puff defending was embarrassing. Mehdi Nafti was appalling and in the build-up to the all important opening goal was more interested in arguing with referee Mark Clattenberg than the play. Clattenberg pushed him away at one point - it was more aggression than the Blues side showed all game. McSheffrey ran into Mellberg all game as he has done with all right backs this season, and Fabrice Muamba was shown up by Barry in the midfield. Barry combined aggression and quality on the ball, whilst Muamba lost out in challenges and rarely controlled the ball, let alone made a telling pass.
Part of Villa's dominance came about from Blues' insistence on gifting them free-kicks in dangerous areas. Clattenberg got some stick from some Blues fans, but I don't think he got anything wrong. Villa were too good for Blues, Blues resorted to silly challenges and Villa pegged Blues inside their own half for lengthy periods of the game. Then, when it wasn't set pieces, it was Ashley Young and Gabby Agbonlahor running the Blues defence ragged. To call this game a mismatch doesn't do it justice - that suggests there was a match of sorts, and it may have been slightly competitive. It wasn't.
This was an absolute embarrassment, and the Blues players deserved the abuse they received from a large number of the travelling fans at the end of the game. No one (with the possible exception of Kapo, who looked so good on the ball when he came on) did anything to justify anything but abuse. Maybe that's harsh on Forssell too, who did score, but that's about it. The players should be absolutely ashamed of themselves. Forssell had said on Friday that he knew Blues "wouldn't freeze" in this one. Had they frozen, they'd probably still have put a better display in than the shower of absolute garbage they churned up.
Forget the smaller, inter-city picture and the local bragging rights, and look at the bigger picture - this is a monumental blow for Blues in their battle against relegation. They don't have the time to take a few weeks to regroup and look to slowly bounce back - they have to do so immediately, and whether they can after this remains to be seen. Blues do have the bonus of two home games in their remaining three matches, unlike Reading, Bolton and Fulham, but whether that will make a difference on this showing, well, I'm not sure.
Personally, I believe that it is absolutely vital that Blues stop up, because if they did go down, unlike last time, I think they'd fall apart. Given the current squad, relegation would see the quality decimated. The likes of Larsson, Muamba, Jerome, McFadden, Kelly, etc, etc would all be off, and Blues would be left trying to get up with players like Maik Taylor, Martin Taylor, Radhi Jaidi, Damien Johnson and Garry O'Connor, and that's scary. Sure, they'd add a few people signed from Luton and Scunthorpe and maybe even a big name signing from Norwich, but it'll be a monumental mission.
Add to that a personal fear that I've had for some time that Alex McLeish came south of the border to manage in the Premier League - not the Championship. If Blues went down, I think McLeish would be off, one way or another. He was too high profile when he took the job to go and manage at a lower level, and clubs would look at his situation as much as Blues' decent young players. I doubt that he'd be Blues' manager come August if Blues are in the Championship, and you could be looking at a club in turmoil. Or with Peter Reid or Iain Dowie as manager.
Make no mistake, this is very, very worrying for Blues now. Strangely, my head tells me that they'll still stop up, but my heart is saying they won't. I hope my head is right. It'll be tough either way, and like I say, I personally feel that relegation could be an absolute disaster and that Blues would plummet if they did go down this time around. It's horrible to consider it, but the way the chance has been taken on promising young players and management means they're more likely to be off leaving the club in a mess.
Back to this game, though, and as I say, it was an embarrassment for everyone concerned. There should be no more motivation for getting three wins out of three now for the players, just to apologise to an entire half of a city for a disgraceful display. Let's face it though, that's not going to happen, as they've demonstrated today that they don't care enough. If they can muster enough points to stop up, brilliant, but some of this lot need to be sent on their way. Maik Taylor, Liam Ridgewell and Mehdi Nafti may scrape survival this season, but they're not good enough. I may also be in a minority when I say I'd rather we didn't pull out all the stops and spend cash on trying to keep Mauro Zarate, if we stop up. Yes, he's a blatant talent, but in some ways he's too good for us and it's detrimental to the team as a whole. McFadden and Kapo provide quality too, but in a way that fits in better, and I don't think Blues can take such a rish with an enigma like Zarate. He's been a fine loan signing, but I'd rather we concentrate efforts elsewhere.
Whichever way you look at it, Blues need shaking up, and shaking up badly. Unfortunately, they haven't got the time this season. It's not often people will say this, but thank God Damien Johnson is back next week.