Aston Villa recorded another 3-0 win with a sensational performance at home to Crystal Palace on Boxing Day. Goals from Traore, Hause and El Ghazi seal our first victory at Villa Park since our tremendous 7-2 win over Liverpool back at the start of October, yes it’s been that long!
The team at UTV podcast – Luke Robinson, Ryan Mckeown, Justin Hawthorne and Sebastian Bacon cover today’s Player Ratings.
Emi Martinez – 8
ANOTHER clean sheet, brilliant first half save and pretty routine stuff all game (LR)
Matty Cash – 8
Found himself caught up in VAR controversy in the first half – clearly no pen! Another superb performance! (RM)
Tyrone Mings – 5
Started off shaky when he was caught on his heels within the opening minutes allowing Zaha a chance one on one which Martinez bailed him out. Zaha was clearly winding him up as the game went on and winding him up successfully, winning foul after foul. Eventually Mings snapped and got himself two yellow cards in the space of a few minutes towards the interval leaving his team mates in a sticky patch with the score at 1-0. Luckily the 3 points weren’t affected by Ming’s stupidity. He let himself and his team down out there today. (SB)
Kortney Hause – 9
Outstanding performance and stepped up even more when Mings was sent off, scored Villa’s crucial second goal. (JH)
Matt Targett – 8.5
Surely in for a shout of most improved player this year, another fine performance to continue his rich vein of form. (RM)
Douglas Luiz – 7
Solid all game, drove villa forward second half with ten men. (LR)
John McGinn – 7
A strong performance making his role look very easy today, ran the midfield well alongside Douglas Luiz and the pair together made veteran’s James McArthur and Milevojevic look like the rookies. (SB)
Jack Grealish – 7
Willing runner all second half, devastating on the counter attack. (LR)
Anwar El Ghazi (Ronaldo) – 9
Clears throat – “Ain’t nobody like El Ghazi”, another brilliant performance and stunning goal (JH)
Bertrand Traore – 8
It would be higher as he was running the game and playing with freedom against Van Aanholt, however I can’t give any higher due to him only playing 45 minutes. (SB)
Ollie Watkins – 9 MOTM
Almost the perfect performance just lacked a goal (JH)
Substitutions
Ezri Konsa – 7 ( on for Traore, 45 minute)
Back from illness and seamlessly slotted back into the defensive line.
Ahmed Elmohamady – 5 (on for El Ghazi, 86 minute)
Jacob Ramsey – 5 (on for Luiz, 90th minute)
UTVPODCAST | Man Of The Match
Ollie Watkins takes the award although there were lots of calls for Matt Targett to be in with a shout.
UTV PODCAST
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