Five Reasons to be Cheerful as Villans
After a mostly dull summer at Villa Park, the Villa boys have ensured that fans’ misery would be extended well into the new season by providing 450 minutes of what has bordered on tedious boredom. With Unai Emery’s team looking devoid of ideas, when, oh when, will fans be given a glimmer of hope? Here are this week’s Five Reasons To Be Cheerful.
Build From The Back
When Unai Emery replaced Steven Gerrard, he inherited a team that was shipping goals and rarely looked like creating them. The weeks that followed Emery’s arrival weren’t always pretty yet; the same group of players started to grind out narrow victories based on stronger foundations at the back. Fast forward almost three years, and Emery has found his own side in a similar predicament.
The Crystal Palace game, aside, it does appear as though Villa’s Spanish mastermind has once again opted to focus on defensive solidity to steady the ship. While it may be painful to watch at present, it could lead to a swift recovery once the attacking play clicks into gear on top of a more solid base.
Strength in Depth
Saturday’s point on Merseyside should give everyone at the club a lift as the Villa bench benefitted from the late transfer window splurge. New boys Harvey Elliott, Evann Guessand, Jadon Sancho and Victor Lindelof were all welcome options, as they joined Pau Torres, Donyell Malen, Marco Bizot and Ian Maatsen to form a new-look Villa squad.
There is no doubt that the players will need time to grow accustomed to the Emery way of playing, but the new additions should add goals and points to an undeniably poor start to the campaign. The minutes against Brentford in the cup will hopefully be part of the integration process.
1% Cup
Two-years ago, Pep Guardiola exclaimed that his team was “not going to waste one per cent of energy” on the Carabao Cup. it’s the attitude that MOMS has taken recently after several years of repeated disinterested efforts by Villa teams.
That said, the League Cup tie at Brentford was a welcome distraction from the abysmal start to the league campaign. As it often is the case in this competition, both sides made wholesale changes to the starting XI, which led to a very disjointed match, but it did give Villa fans a chance to see some new faces and more importantly, a rest from some of the regular faces that haven’t been performing.
The game wasn’t a memorable one and while fans will mourn the exit from the competition, the reality is that this season is all about the Europa League and trying to finish as high as possible in the Premier League. Having already picked up a handful of injuries, a run in the League Cup might not have been too helpful. Of course, the one percent cup captures everyone’s imaginations when you reach the semi-final stage, but the reality of the club’s current focus is that they simply don’t need the extra matches.
The penalty shoot would have been a useful dress rehearsal for the Europa League, but hopefully, Emi Martinez will be in-between the sticks if Villa go to spot kicks in that.
Golden Goal
Speaking of dress rehearsals, the Harvey Elliot goal in the League Cup gave us a taste, in a match that was akin to a pre-season friendly, of what it’s like to score again. Should we one day score a league goal, no matter how scrappy, it will feel like a huge weight has been lifted.
There’s certainly an opportunity for Villa to break their duck in the next three Premier League matches with Sunderland, Fulham and Burnley to come.
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Big Chances Missed
After leading the Premier League last season with the most Big Chances Missed, one boost to Ollie Watkins’ season due to his lack of involvement is his Big Chances Missed tally is currently low and unlikely to get much higher at this rate. Joking aside, the striker, who is undoubtedly still aiming for 20 league goals this season, does tend to score and not score in streaks.
Looking at Villa’s fixture run mentioned above, surely it’s time to go on a goal-scoring run to match the one he had in pre-season? That said, he will need the help of his teammates, who so far, aren’t creating the chances for him.
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