Stiliyan Petrov insisted Aston Villa's players never stopped believing Stephen Ireland would come good after the midfielder put his Twitter troubles behind him to inspire their shock victory at Chelsea.
Saturday saw Ireland deliver the perfect response to manager Alex McLeish's demand for him to make headlines on the field after making more waves off it over Christmas.
Days earlier, Ireland's girlfriend posted a photograph of the 25-year-old smoking a Shisha pipe on Twitter, something that clearly irked McLeish. But that did not stop the Scot recalling the controversial midfielder, a decision that paid off spectacularly as Villa won at Stamford Bridge for the first time in almost a decade.
Ireland delivered a man-of-the-match display, scoring his first goal for the midlanders and first for more than two years, as well as setting up their game-clinching third in a 3-1 victory.
Despite struggling to make an impact at Villa Park since his £8million move from Manchester City, Ireland never lost the confidence of his team-mates, according to captain Petrov.
"A lot of people have given up on Ireland but we haven't," said Petrov, who scored Villa's second goal. "We can see him every day in training, what kind of player he is, and he came in under a lot of pressure and put in a very fine performance."
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I think with Ireland it wasn't his choice to come to Villa which is why it took a while for the Milner deal to go through. Therefore when he first came in he wasn't in a good place and it's took a while (couple of changes of manaager etc.) for him to come round.
I think his quality is unquestioned.
He was also unlucky against arsenal because he was playing well before he had to come off.
Jeff I think against Chelsea he was trying to take cech out of the scenario by passing to Bent but he played it too early. Unselfish and in the end it worked out.
Ian I agree the position is there for the taking. He is exaclty the player we've been crying out for since Barry.
Whatever it was you were smoking in the pipe Steve please keep it up! Let's hope your performance against Chelsea is going to be another habit of your's.
Fingers crossed. It seems clear that Ireland's problems are in his head, physically he is still in good shape. At his best he bursts forward with speed. Lack of a strong midfield player has been Villa's glaring weakness for years, yet only forwards and defenders have been brought in. Ireland himself was a make-weight in adeal not a choice. The slot is there for Ireland to make it his own if he can deliver every game. Swansea's style will be a good test.
if as petrov says he has been doing well in training - how come he has been a waste of space until now - when he puts in a genuine man of the match show and wins us the game.
whatever the reasons behind this he cant be expected to do that well every game but also he cant just go back to being useless.
he is one the best MF in EPL back in his man city day....
hope he regain that form again this season....
Best Display from Stephen Ireland I've seen since his Man City days, I thought he was outstanding.
I agree matteos, 1 performance in 18 months is NOT something I'm going to start getting excited about... yet.
Give the kid a chance and maybe, just maybe, he's found his mojo.
Still, 1 point, can any one explain to me why Ireland didn't just try to bury the 3rd goal? the assist looked like a harder goal to score than for ireland to just poke it in himself.
i wouldnt get too excited yet petrov, his consistency remains to be seen...
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