Last weekend, Villa returned to winning ways at Goodison Park and Unai Emery’s side looked to build on that with a victory at home to struggling Palace.
The team from Croydon had earned plaudits last season as they finished 12th in the league playing an energetic and entertaining brand of football. A strong run of form before the World Cup break had the Eagles just two points off a European spot, but their season has unravelled since the return of domestic football. With just one win from their last 11 in all competitions, Palace arrived at Villa Park looking anxiously over their shoulders as the teams at the bottom reel them into the relegation dogfight.
Villa, on the other hand, continue to pull away from the chaotic lower reaches of the league as Emery sets his focus on a top half finish. With that being said though, only four points and one place separated the two teams at the start of play, despite their seemingly opposite trajectories.
Zaha’s timely return
The away side’s search for their first win of the calendar year was buoyed by the return to fitness of talisman Wilfried Zaha. Since the start of the 2020/21 season, Palace have a 32.9% win rate and have collected 1.3 points per game (PPG) when the Ivorian has been involved, compared to a meagre 11.1% win rate and 0.7 PPG when he has been unavailable.
If much of the pre-match discussions had focused on Palace’s star player, Villa’s leading man of late was eyeing up a piece of claret and blue history. Ollie Watkins has become a key player under Unai Emery and his cool penalty against Everton was his fifth goal in five consecutive league games. The England forward became the first Villa player in the Premier League era to achieve this feat and had his eyes on equalling Andy Gray’s 46 year record of scoring in six competitive matches in a row.
The eye-catching form of the former Brentford forward, which has put him back in England contention, has been fuelled by after hours training sessions and the implementation of a system that compliments Watkins’ style of play.
For the hosts Emi Buendía replaced Leon Bailey in the starting eleven after a pendulum-swinging cameo off the bench last week. Álex Moreno also came in at left back, with Lucas Digne dropping out. As expected, Zaha made his much anticipated return for Palace, whilst Eberechi Eze was given his first start in over a month. Jeffrey Schlupp and Jean-Philippe Mateta made way.
After former Colombian striker Juan Pablo Ángel was paraded onto the pitch, the stage was set and the game commenced.
Early reprieve
Just five minutes had elapsed when the visitors produced the first moment of significance in the match. Unsurprisingly, the returning Zaha was heavily involved. Eze found the explosive number 11, who had peeled off Konsa. Zaha cleverly rounded Martínez and slid home. His joy was short lived, however, as VAR correctly chalked the goal off for offside.
After that let off, Villa began to move the ball around with greater confidence and the overlapping Moreno and Cash posed a headache for their opposite numbers in the Palace backline.
Flowing Villa hit the front
It was the Polish international who broke free to set up the opening goal. A flowing team move out from the back, which started with the keeper, ripped through the visitors with ease as McGinn turned and provided a sublime through ball to Cash. The rampaging right back took the ball in his stride and delivered an enticing cross across goal. With Ollie Watkins ready at the back post to provide a famous Villa Park moment, it was instead Eagles defender Joachim Andersen who stole the headlines. The Danish defender got his feet in a tangle as he attempted to clear and prodded the ball into his own net to give Villa the lead.
The goal was a roaring victory for the meticulous Unai Emery and his coaching team, who expect players to be comfortable in starting attacks by passing out from the back even if it does not always go down well with impatient pockets of Villa Park. Patience is the order of the day as when such a build-up comes off it is incisive, penetrative and so hard to stop and it is working increasingly often as Emery stamps his magic all over this squad.
Ollie’s big moment
If Watkins was unlucky that the ball did not fall for him, he would not have to wait long for another chance to get on the scoresheet. It was down the right side again where Villa found space, this time it was Buendía who was picked out by the impressive McGinn, and the Argentinian caressed a pinpoint outside-of-the-boot pass into the feet of the lurking Watkins. Time seemed to stand still as the forward controlled expertly and set his sights on goal. With Andy Gray waiting to welcome another member to the esteemed club, Watkins’ effort agonisingly clipped the outside of the post as it headed behind for a goal kick.
Villa headed into the break one up. Which was a fair reflection of a tight half which had been edged by the sharper passing and more fluent movement of the home side.
Dangerous Doucouré leaves his mark
The game had threatened to open up towards the end of the first half, but the second half did not set alight until the hour mark. With Villa continuing to see more of the ball, the away midfield started to become stretched. As holding midfielder Kamara broke down the right hand side, Cheick Doucouré lunged in with a dangerous mistimed challenge. The tackle was high, forceful and late, with the trailing leg from the Malian star trapping the Villa man’s ankle underneath him. As Kamara yelled in agony, Craig Pawson produced the first of seven yellow cards in the match.
The talented French star was substituted immediately and looks to be out of action until at least the international break. It wasn’t long before the second yellow came out of Pawson’s pocket for a familiar recipient. Just five minutes later, the ball broke in the middle of the park and Calum Chambers, Kamara’s replacement, was quickest to react. After injuring one Villa player, Doucouré was once again late as he caught Chambers on the shin. Once play came to a halt, the referee came back to give the Palace midfielder his marching orders.
Three points secured
John McGinn could have killed the game as substitute Leon Bailey cut the ball back shortly after coming on for Jacob Ramsey. Watkins let the ball run to the onrushing Scottish international but his effort was well kept out by Spanish goalkeeper Guaita.
Both managers continued to ring the changes, with Ollie Watkins making his way off the field for the lively Jhon Durán. This brought about the end of the goal run for Ollie Watkins, but his hard-work, link-up play and ability to pick up dangerous spaces had helped secure yet another three points.
Without getting out of second gear, Emery’s side were able to see the game out without facing a single shot on target to register a second clean sheet in a row. It is also the fourth clean sheet in 12 games under the Spaniard, having registered two in the previous 13. This was far from the best performance of the Unai Emery era, but led to a valuable win nonetheless as the side in claret and blue have shown grit in response to the recent three defeats on the trot.
Super Unai Emery
It will not be lost on Villans that, at the time of writing, only four teams have taken more points in the Premier League than the 22 that Villa have collected since Emery joined the club on 1st November. The 1.83 PPG, 1.67 goals scored per game and 58.3% win rate that Emery has been responsible for in the league shows the undeniable improvements that have been made in recent months. For comparison, in the first 13 matches of the season Villa racked up 0.92 PPG, 0.85 goals scored per game and had a win rate of 23.1%. When Aaron Danks’ games are removed, the win rate falls further to 18.2%, the PPG to 0.82 and the goals scored per game to 0.64.
Such a remarkable turnaround is made even more impressive by the fact that six of Emery’s league matches have come against sides in the current top eight. Gerrard only faced two of these sides, with Danks facing one in his two games in charge.
Of course it is only a small sample size, but if the current PPG was replicated across a full season then Villa would finish around the 70 point mark. In the last 10 Premier League seasons, 70 points would be good enough for European qualification in nine of them, including Champions League qualification in four of them. There is a long way to go before European qualification is a realistic consideration but the early signs are bright.
Top half push
The gap is growing between the B6 side and Palace and the rest of the bottom nine, whilst Chelsea and Brentford remain firmly in sight just ahead. It is the eighth consecutive matchday that Villa have finished in 11th place, but a rise into the top half of the league could finally be realised in the coming weeks.
Starting with West Ham at the London Stadium next week, Villa have what may look like a favourable run on paper as they take on four teams below them in the next five fixtures. Under Emery, Villa have often impressed against the teams higher up in the table, but the last two victories against Everton and Palace will give the side confidence that they can string together a strong run either side of the March international break.
Despite the positivity of the three points, fans will be concerned over the injury suffered by star midfielder Boubacar Kamara. There is hope around the club that the injury is not as serious as it first looks, but the midfield will certainly look weaker in his absence in the coming weeks.
AUTHOR | JOEY MILLINGTON
Author’s UTV PODCAST archive Joey Millington | UTV Podcast | An Aston Villa Blog
On Twitter? Drop the author a follow…
SUBSCRIBE
Enjoying this article? It’s FREE to subscribe to UTVPODCAST | An Aston Villa Blog; you’ll receive instant email notifications of all released articles.
If you’ve found this post via Facebook, then please follow our blog page to support our fan-led content – https://www.facebook.com/UTVPODCAST
DONATE
UTVPODCAST | An Aston Villa Blog— is now accepting small donations, which will help to support the site’s ongoing evolution.
Thank you so much for your support.
HUGE SAVINGS ON ASTON VILLA MERCHANDISE @ KITBAG
UTVPODCAST is pleased to partner with Official AVFC Store, Fanatics, and Kitbag. Throughout the season, we will bring you exclusive offers and discount codes.
HIT THE IMAGE – to be diverted.
